Dr Sharma Saha's journey in translational cancer research started with her PhD in cancer biology in 2017 from the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, India with a PhD studentship award from the Counsil for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India. Following her doctoral training, Dr Sharma Saha trained briefly at the Tata Medical Centre, Kolkata before taking on her first post-doctoral role in the field of DNA damage and immune regulation at the University of Chicago (2018). During thet short post-doctoral training, she was honoured to receive the Sigal Immuno-oncology Award to advance her research in the field of DNA damage and immune regulation in prostate cancers.

Due to dual career issues, Dr Sharma Saha moved to Newcastle in 2019, and joined Newcastle University as Research Associate where she continued working on DNA damage with Prof Nicola Curtin and Dr Yvette Drew publishing first author and corresponding author publications. Dr Sharma Saha developed her independent research projects here on DNA damage and immune regulation with industrial partnership with Merck KGaA. This helped her to obtain 2 pump-priming grants from Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals (NuTH) charity (£50,000 each) in 2020 and 2021. 

Dr Sharma Saha also developed industrial collaboration with Sarissa Inc (Canada) led by Dr Mark Vincent (London Regional Cancer Centre, Ontario, Canada) through which they are functionally characterising a novel therapeutic drug compound targeting DNA damage response pathway.

Dr Sharma Saha also continues to collaborate with Dr Sam Orange at Newcastle University on a project that explores the role of exercise in cancer prevention through its impact on the DNA damage repair machinery.

In her current role as the VC Research Fellow (School of Health and Life Sciences), Dr Sharma Saha leads a cancer research team at the National Horizons Centre. She is also the academic lead for the Teesside Oncology Research Program (TORCH) with current focus on Ovarian Cancer along with clinical colleagues from The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesborough and supported by Prof Vikki Rand, Director, National Horizons Centre and the Tees Valley Research Alliance. Dr Sharma Saha is also currently engaged in studies focussed on other cancer models like breast cancers.

Research

Dr Sharma Saha leads a collaborative team of research scientists from academic and clinical background focussing on developing novel cancer therapeutic approaches using precision medicine approaches.

Teaching

Module Tutur for Cancer Diagnostics and Therapeutics module (MSc Cancer and Molecular Diagnostics Course). Topics include:

1. Molecular tests in cancer precision medicine 

2. Immunotherapy & next-generation sequencing for precision oncology 

3. Pharmacogenomics and personalized cancer treatments 

My current research focuses on

(i) Understanding tumour heterogeneity in ovarian cancers including the tumour immune microenvironment

(ii) Understanding therapy resistance and exploring novel therapeutic options

(iii) Understanding the cross-talk between DNA damage response signalling and immune response and its implications in therapeutic exploitation for cancer therapy

National and international candidates interseted in a PhD in Cancer Biology and Post-doctoral researchers are requested to contact via email to discuss potential fellowship opportunities.

2024: ProBio Africa Fellowship (FEBS-IUBMB-FASBMB) research training host from UK

2024: Member of Biochemical Society

2023 - till date:  Member of Gynaecology Trials group – UK (GTG-UK)

2022 - till date: Member of Peer Review College - UKRI

2019- till date: Grant reviewer for Nazarbayev University, Malaysia and Medical University of Bialystok, Poland.

2019 - till date: Reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals including Clinical Cancer Research (AACR), Cancers (MDPI), Biochemical Society Transactions, BBA-Molecular Cancer Research, Frontiers in Oncology, Cancer Management and Research, The Journal of Pathology

2019 - till date:  Member of The British Association for Cancer Research (BACR)

2019 - till date: Member of The European Association for Cancer Research (EACR)

2017 - till date:  Member of Indian Society for Translational Research (ISTR)

Current Funding Awards/Projects:

2024: Host for ProBio Africa Research Training Fellow (Dr Ifeoma Felicia Chukwuma) funded by FEBS-IUBMB-FASBMB

2024: Sarissa Inc, Canada funded extension of project “Assessing homologous recombination repair function in response to a panel of RAD51 inhibitors” (Amount: £48,060; Role: PI)

Previous Funding Awards/Projects:

2023: Sarissa Inc, Canada funded extension of project “Assessing homologous recombination repair function in response to a panel of RAD51 inhibitors” (Amount: £21,862; Role: PI)

2022: Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Charity funded project “Characterization of tumour immune microenvironment of ovarian cancers in response to PARP and ATR inhibition” (Amount: £49,030; Role: Co-PI)

2022: Newcastle University’s Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support funded project “Mechanisms Of acuTe exercIse and cOlorectal caNcer progression (MOTION)” (Amount: £10,000; Role: Co-I)

2022: Sarissa Inc, Canada funded project “Assessing homologous recombination repair function in response to a panel of RAD51 inhibitors” (Amount: £9,073; Role: PI)

2021:   Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Charity funded project: “Exploring the immunomodulatory role of PARP and ATR inhibitor combination in ovarian cancer” (Amount: £49,995; Role: Co-PI)

2021: Newcastle University’s Wellcome Trust Translational Partnership funded project “Establish 3D-spheroid co-culture model to investigating the immunomodulatory impact of PARP inhibitor (PARPi) and radiotherapy combination in Head and neck cancer” (Amount: £10,000; Role: Co-I)

2019:    Sigal Immuno-oncology Award as Post-doctoral Scholar at the Hematology/Oncology Section at the Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, USA (Amount: $75,000)

2010 - 2015:   Junior and Senior Research Fellowship for 3 years from Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), India for doctoral research (All India Rank: 54) (Amount: INR 1,341,600)