Dipak Sarkar
Director, Endocrine Program
Distinguished Professor
Distinguished Professor
Research
My current research focuses on understanding how fetal alcohol exposures alter neuroimmune communications in the hypothalamus via extravesicular and epigenetic mechanisms to induce stress hyper-response, behavioral abnormalities, metabolic dysfunctions, immune incompetence and cancer.
Scientific Projects
- Signal transduction pathways for alcohol action on -EP neuronal differentiation and neurotransmission
- Alcohol and opioid peptide interaction in the control of NK cell activity
- Clock genes regulation of neuroendocrine and immune functions
- Fetal alcohol effects on stress axis
- Fetal alcohol effects on circadian rhythms
- Neuronal stem cells and their differentiation
- Beta-endorphin cell transplants in control of stress disorders and cancer
- Fetal alcohol effects on tumor susceptibility
- Alcohol induced oxidative stress and toxicity in developing neurons
- Epigenetic of alcohol effect on stress axis development
- Opioid receptor dimerization
- Neuron and glial interaction in controlling alcohol apoptotic action
- Cell cell (paracrine and gap-junctional) communications in the control of hormonal carcinogenesis in pituitary lactotropic cells.
- Determination of the efficacy of adenoviral vector delivery of growth factors in the treatment of pituitary tumors.
- Effects of alkylphenols in the control of sexual differentiation of the neuroendocrine brain and the development of reproductive functions
Experience
- Distinguished Professor and Director - Endocrine Program, Center for Alcohol Studies, Dept. of Animal Sciences, Rutgers University (2001)
- Chair and Professor - Dept. of Animal Sciences, Rutgers University (1999)
- Director - Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program, Washington State University (1998)
- Adjunct Professor - Department of Genetics and Cell Biology, Washington State University (1989)
- Adjunct Professor - Program of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Washington State University (1989)
- Professor - Department of Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Pharmacology and Physiology; Washington State University (1996)
- Associate Professor (Tenured) - Department of Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Pharmacology and Physiology; Washington State University (1988)
- Assistant Professor - University of California, San Diego, Department of Reproductive Medicine (1983)
- Research Associate - Michigan State University, Department of Physiology (1980)
- Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow - Yale University School of Medicine, Section of Neurological Surgery (1979)
- Postdoctoral Research Assistant - University of Oxford, Department of Anatomy (1979)
Education
- D. Phil. - Oxford University, UK (1979)
- Ph.D. - Calcutta University, India (1975)
- M.S. - Calcutta University, India (1972)
- B.S. - Calcutta University, India (1970)
Current Research Faculty Postdocs and Graduate Students
- Shaista Chaudhary , PhD - Postdoctoral Associate (2019 - present)
- Ujjal Das, PhD - Postdoctoral Associate (2021 - present)
- Prashant Tarale - Postdoctoral Associate (2021 - present)
- Naseer Kutchy - Postdoctoral Associate (2022 - present)
- Lazer Gerlikhman - Postdoctoral Fellow (2022 - present)