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Akansha Singh, Ph.D.

Akansha Singh, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

School
Medical School
Department
Radiation Oncology
  • Biography

    Akansha Singh, Ph.D., received her Ph.D. in immunology from the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi, India, in 2020. Her Ph.D. work focused on designing an artificial tissue substitute to be used for organ regeneration, utilizing natural and organic polymers. Dr. Singh received fellowship training from University of Toronto, Canada, to work at Ross Tilley Burn Centre of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, to advance her research on artificial dermal substitutes.

    Dr. Singh completed her postdoctoral training in the Department of Physiological Sciences at Oklahoma State University (OSU), where she extended her knowledge of organic polymer to develop multimodal particles for enhanced antigen presenting cell activation. Later, she served as a research scientist and research assistant professor at OSU, focusing her work on improving clinical outcomes of immunotherapies for cancer treatment. She was a part of a canine clinical trial team at OSU where she treated canine cancer patients with therapeutic ultrasound and immunological cell death inducing nanoparticles.

    Dr. Singh has extensive experience with therapeutic ultrasound, cancer immunology, polymeric nano- and micro-particle formulations, biochemistry, molecular biology, protein structure, and function, and has had her work published in peer-reviewed journals. Her current work is focused on understanding molecular and immunological variations among cancer patients and designing a treatment regime based on patients’ immune and demographic profiles.

  • Research Interest
    • Formulation of synthetic polymer-based drug delivery systems
    • High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)
    • Oncoimmunology
    • Role of adrenergic stress on immune cells in anti-tumor immunity
    • Role of tumor resident immune cell on immunotherapy outcome
  • Honors & Awards
    • Darren P. Baker Presenter Award, Annual Beyond Science Initiative (BSI) Conference, University of Toronto
      (2024)
    • Best Poster Presentation, NanoBiotech Conference (New Delhi, India)
      (2019)
    • Senior Research Fellowship Award, Department of Science, Government of India (New Delhi, India)
      (2019)
    • Best Poster Presentation, NanoWorld Conference (San Francisco, CA)
      (2018)
    • Best Poster Award, 3rd Annual Remote Conference, Beyond Science Initiative (BSI), University of Toronto
      (2017)
    • Queen Elizabeth-II Scholarship for Graduates, University of Toronto
      (2017)
    • Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Junior Research Fellowship Award (CSIR-JRF), Government of India (New Delhi, India)
      (2013)
  • Professional Associations/Affiliations
    • American Association for Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) (2022)
    • American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (2022)
    • Beyond Science Initiative (BSI) (2016)
    • Editor (2023)
    • Focused Ultrasound Foundation (2020)
    • International Society for Therapeutic Ultrasound (ISTU) (2020)
    • Scientific Reviewer (2024)
    • Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) (2023)
    • Women in Cancer Immunotherapy Network, Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) (2024)