Alok Deoraj, M.S., Ph.D.

Focus

Environmental Toxicology

Biography

Dr. Alok Deoraj possesses significant experience in teaching, research, and management within both academic and industry environments. Currently, his main focus lies in developing curricula and instructing undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. courses in the fields of Global and Environmental Public Health, as well as One Health. Furthermore, Dr. Deoraj engages in research endeavors to investigate the impact of complex environmental exposures on the molecular pathology of carcinogenesis and the metastasis of aggressive cancers. He employs innovative health risk assessment methods, utilizing integrative bioinformatics and machine learning approaches to elucidate the intricate pathways through which complex mixtures of environmental pollutants contribute to the unfavorable prognoses observed in cancer patients.

Education

• Certificate of Management: Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business, Belmont University. Nashville. TN.
• Ph.D.: National Institute of Immunology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
• MS: Patna University, Patna. India

Courses

• IDH3035  One Health: Of the People, By the People, For the People (Global Learning (GL) and Honors College Course) ^*
• IDS3183  Health without Border (GL and University Core Curriculum Course)^*
• PHC6315 Introduction to Environmental Health 
• PHC6311 Environmental Health Risk Assessment
• PHC6662 Global One Health^*

*Developed new courses

Relevant Presentations and Creative Work

• Featured in Global Learning Podcast on Introducing Students to Global Public Health
• Tuesday Times Roundtable at FIU How Toxic is Our Environment & How Do We Know It?

Selected Recent Publications

Peer reviewed publications

1. Alwadi, D., Felty, Q., Yoo, C., Roy, D., & Deoraj, A. (2023). Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals Influence Hub Genes Associated with Aggressive Prostate Cancer. International journal of molecular sciences, 24(4), 3191. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24043191
2. Alwadi, D., Felty, Q., Roy, D., Yoo, C., & Deoraj, A. (2022). Environmental Phenol and Paraben Exposure Risks and Their Potential Influence on the Gene Expression Involved in the Prognosis of Prostate Cancer. International journal of molecular sciences, 23(7), 3679. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23073679.
3. Bhawe, K., Das, J. K., Yoo, C., Felty, Q., Gong, Z., Deoraj, A., Liuzzi, J. P., Ehtesham, N. Z., Hasnain, S. E., Singh, V. P., Mohapatra, I., Komotar, R. J., & Roy, D. (2022). Nuclear respiratory factor 1 transcriptomic signatures as prognostic indicators of recurring aggressive mesenchymal glioblastoma and resistance to therapy in White American females. Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology, 148(7), 1641–1682. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-022-03987-2.
4. Das, J. K., Deoraj, A., Roy, D., & Felty, Q. (2022). Brain infiltration of breast cancer stem cells is facilitated by paracrine signaling by inhibitor of differentiation 3 to nuclear respiratory factor 1. Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology, 148(10), 2881–2891. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-022-04026-w.
5. Mathee, K., Cickovski, T., Deoraj, A., Stollstorff, M., & Narasimhan, G. (2020). The gut microbiome and neuropsychiatric disorders: implications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Journal of medical microbiology, 69(1), 14–24. https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.001112.

Book Chapter

Deoraj, A., Yoo, C., & Roy, D. (2016). Integrated Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, and Molecular Epidemiologic Approaches to Study How the Environment and Genes Work Together to Influence the Development of Complex Chronic Diseases. Ed. Anno, S. In Gene-environment interaction analysis: Methods in bioinformatics and computational biology. CRC Press. 151-191.

Recent Abstracts in Conference Proceedings

1. Gupta, P., Joykutty, L., Alwadi, D., Ruas, A., Roy, D., Felty, Q., & Deoraj, A. (2023). Checkpoint Kinase I, Cyclin E1, and Exonuclease I genes play role in the survival of lung adenocarcinoma patients. Cancer Research, 83(7_Supplement), 3158-3158.
2. Das, J., Deoraj, A., Roy, D., & Felty, Q. (2023). ID3 controlled dynamic Pyk2 localization is important for the mobility of cancer stem cells. Cancer Research, 83(7_Supplement), 1278-1278.
3. Alwadi, D., Deoraj, A., Felty, Q., & Roy, D. (2022). Discovery of recurrence and prognosis associated genes in prostate cancer. Cancer Research, 82(12_Supplement), 1442-1442.
4. Ruas, A., Felty, Q., Das, J. K., Deoraj, A., Yoo, C., & Roy, D. (2022). A NRF1-driven JRK-mediated β-catenin transcriptional activity contributes to the aggressive growth of ovarian cancer. Cancer Research, 82(12_Supplement), 779-779.
5. Bhawe, K., Felty, Q., Yoo, C., Deoraj, A., & Roy, D., (2020). High NRF1 Activity Is Associated with Poor Survival and Resistance to Temozolomide Therapy. Toxicological Sciences, 174, 450-450.