Tannishtha Reya is an Indian-born American cell and developmental biologist working in cancer research at the

University of California San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is th ...

. She has received numerous awards, including an

NIH The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

Director's Pioneer Award in 2009 and an NCI Outstanding Investigator Award in 2015. Reya is particularly known for co-authoring an influential publication in 2001 coining the term " cancer stem cell" to describe a cancer cell that mirrors the properties of stem cells of healthy organs in the context of leukaemias or solid tumours.

Education

Reya was born in India and is the granddaughter of writers

Buddhadeb Bose Buddhadeva Bose (; 1908–1974), also spelt Buddhadeb Bosu, was an Bengali language, Indian Bengali writer of the 20th century. Frequently referred to as a poet, he was a versatile writer who wrote novels, short stories, plays and essays in add ...

and

Protiva Bose Protiva Bose (also spelled Pratibha Basu; bn, প্রতিভা বসু) (March 13, 1915 – 13 October 2006) was a singer and one of the most prolific and widely read Bengali writers of novels, short stories, and essays. Biography She was ...

. She moved to the US when she was seventeen to take a liberal arts degree at

Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kill ...

in Massachusetts because she wanted to be "exposed to both literature and the sciences.". She then pursued her PhD in

immunology Immunology is a branch of medicineImmunology for Medical Students, Roderick Nairn, Matthew Helbert, Mosby, 2007 and biology that covers the medical study of immune systems in humans, animals, plants and sapient species. In such we can see the ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

under the guidance of Simon Carding. Reya conducted her postdoctoral research first in the laboratory of Rudolf Grosschedl at the

University of California San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It condu ...

and then with

Irving Weissman Irving Lerner "Irv" Weissman (born Great Falls, Montana, October 21, 1939) is a Professor of Pathology and Developmental Biology at Stanford University where he is the Director of the Stanford Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medic ...

at Stanford University.

Career

Reya is professor of pharmacology and medicine at

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

. Previously she was faculty at Duke University. Her research on acute myeloid leukaemia explored the possibilities of targeting a cell surface molecule ( CD98) to inhibit the growth of cancer cells. Her most recent research is in the field of pancreatic cancer. She and her team are investigating the roles of

immune system receptors An immune receptor (or immunologic receptor) is a receptor, usually on a cell membrane, which binds to a substance (for example, a cytokine) and causes a response in the immune system. Types The main receptors in the immune system are pattern rec ...

and potential related therapies. Reya currently serves on the editorial board of the journal ''Science'' and has been the recipient of numerous grants, including

Stand Up to Cancer Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C) is a charitable program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF). SU2C aims to raise significant funds for translational cancer research through online and televised efforts. Central to the program is a telethon tha ...

grants in 2017 and 2019. In 2019, Reya was interviewed by the Stem Cell Podcast.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reya, Tannishtha University of California, San Diego faculty 21st-century American women scientists Williams College alumni Cancer researchers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Indian emigrants to the United States University of Pennsylvania alumni Developmental biologists Cell biologists American women biologists 21st-century American biologists