Sumegha Mitra, PhD

Sumegha Mitra, PhD

Associate Professor

Dr. Mitra’s research focuses on understanding the adaptive mechanisms that promote ovarian cancer growth and chemoresistant progression under various oncogenic and physiological stressors. Her group identified a deubiquitinase that plays a critical role in maintaining protein homeostasis and providing resistance to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Her current research aims to identify the role of ER stress response signaling in the growth of drug-tolerant persister cells and the potential of disrupting protein homeostasis to re-sensitize chemoresistant ovarian cancer to platinum therapy.

Dr. Mitra obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Mumbai and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Subsequently, she joined as a faculty member at the Indiana University School of Medicine. She received the Liz Tilberis Early Career Award from the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance and a grant from the American Cancer Society for her studies.