Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology Training Program
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

Prashant Rajbhandari, PhD

Position title: Assistant Professor, Principal Investigator Co-Director, Director, Metabolic Assessment Core, Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism Institute, Disease Mechanism and Therapeutics Program, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Hospital, Manhattan, NY

Phone: Advisor: Dr. Elaine Alarid

Address:
Graduation: 05/2013
Research Interest: Regulation of estrogen receptor-alpha by post-translational modifications in breast cancer cells

Lab Website
RAJBHANDARI LAB
Prashant Rajbhandari

Alumni News

  • Received $4 Million Grant From NIH to Study the Role of the Mammary Gland Secretome in Metabolic Health. Dr. Rajbhandari investigating a new frontier in understanding diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes.

  • Assistant Professor, Principal Investigator
    Co-Director, Animal Metabolic Assessment Core
    Diabetes and Obesity Medical Institute (DOMI)
    Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology (IGMG)
    Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Hospital
    Manhattan, NY: October 2018 – Present
  • Postdoctoral Research Lab: October 2013-2018
    Peter Tontonoz, MD, PhD
    Howard Hughes Medical Institute
    UCLA
    Research focus: Investigating molecular mediators of adipose metabolic programs and their roles in diabetes and obesity

Featured Publications

  • Patel, S., Sparman, N.Z.R., Arneson, D., Alvarsson, A., Santos, L.C.,, Duesman, S., Centonze, A., Hathaway, E., Ahn, IS., Diamante, G., Cely, I., Cho, CH., Talari, N.K., Rajbhandari, A.K., Goedeke,L., Wang,P., Butte, A.J., Blanpain, C., Krishnan, KC., Lusis, A.J., Stanley, S.A, Yang, X., and Rajbhandari, P.* Mammary duct luminal epithelium controls adipocyte thermogenic programme. 2023. Nature. 620, 192-199. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06361-5. *Corresponding and senior author.
  • Patel, S., Ganbold, K., Cho, C. H., Siddiqui, J., Yildiz, R., Sparman, N., Sadeh, S., Nguyen, C. M., Wang, J., Whitelegge, J. P., Fried, S. K., Waki, H., Villanueva, C. J., Seldin, M. M., Sakaguchi, S., Ellmeier, W., Tontonoz, P., and Rajbhandari, P*. Transcription factor PATZ1 promotes white adipogenesis by controlling promoter regulatory loci of adipogenic factors. 2024. Nature Communications(Accepted). *Corresponding and senior author.
  • Pamela Mattar, Andressa Reginato, Christian Lavados, Manu Kalyani, Debajyoti Das, Nuria Martinez-Lopez, Mridul Sharma, Rajasekaran Subbarayan, Elodie Picarda, Xingxing Zhang, Jinghang Zhang, Chandan Guha, Gary Schwartz, Prashant Rajbhandari*, Rajat Singh*. Insulin and leptin oscillations license food-entrained browning and metabolic flexibility.2024. Cell Reports. Volume 43, ISSUE 7, 114390. *Senior authors
  • Rajbhandari, P.*,Douglas Arneson, Sydney Hart#, In Sook Ahn, Graciel Diamante, Luis Santos#, An-Chieh Feng, Brandon Thomas, Laurent Vergenes, Stephen Lee, Karen Reue, Stephen Smale, Xia Yang, and Peter Tontonoz*. Single Cell Analysis Reveals Immune Cell-Adipocyte Crosstalk Regulating the Transcription of Thermogenic Adipocytes. eLife. 2019;8:e49501 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.49501*Corresponding authors
  • Rajbhandari, P., Thomas, B, Feng, A., Hong, C, Vergnes, L., Wang, J., Sallam, T., Wang, B., Sandhu, J., Seldin, MM., Lusis, AJ., Fong. L., Young, SG., Reue, K., Smale, T., and Tontonoz, P. Interleukin-10 Signaling Alters Chromatin Architecture in Adipose to Limit Thermogenesis and Energy expenditure. Cell. 2018; 172, 1, 218-233.e1; e217doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2017.11.019

 

Grants

2024-present: NIH Director’s Pioneer Award (DP1)-NIDDK Catalyst Award DP1DK140003 (PI)

2024-present: NIH/NIA U19AG060917 (PI with 15% effort)

2024-present: NIH/NIDDK R01DK136035 (PI)

2024-present: Irma T. Hirschl/Monique Weill-Caulier Scholar Award (PI)

2022-present: NIH/NIDDK R21 DK129908 (Co-PI)

2020-2022: Diabetes Action Research and Education Foundation (PI)

2020-2022: Einstein-Sinai NIDDK Diabetes Research Center Pilot & Feasibility Award (PI)

2019-2023: NIH/NIDDK R00 DK114571 (PI)

2018-2020: NIH/NIDDK Pathway to Independence K99 DK114571(PI)

2014-2017: NIH/NIDDK NRSA Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship (F32 DK104484), UCLA

2012-2013: NIH/NCI (T32 CA009135), UW-Madison

2009-2010: NIH/NIGMS (T32 GM008688), UW-Madison

2008-2009: Herman I. Shapiro Graduate Fellowship, School of Medicine, UW-Madison

2008: Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Fellowship, University of Michigan

2005: MIT Research Fellowship, MIT, Cambridge, MA