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Department of Pathology |
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HEPATIC PATHOPHYSIOLOGY LABORATORY PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:
Mission Statement: Discerning the molecular mechanisms of liver health and disease, one pathway at a time! RESEARCH: About the Principal Investigator: Dr. MONGA obtained his Medical Degree from Dayanand Medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab, India in 1993. He did his postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Lopa Mishra at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Washington, D.C. in the laboratory of Gastroenterology, Molecular Biology and Development from 1996-1999, which was affiliated with Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., and later with Fels Cancer Institute, Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia. Dr. Monga moved to the department of Pathology as a Research Associate in with Dr. George Michalopoulos in 1999 and was promoted to Research Assistant Professor in 2001 and to an Assistant Professor of Pathology in the tenure stream in 2003. Dr. Monga was promoted to an Associate Professor in 2007 and was tenured in 2009. He also became the director of the division of Experimental Pathology in 2008. Dr. Monga is also Associate Professor of Medicine in the division of Gastroenterology. He is also a member of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine (MIRM) and has played an active role in CATER program and in directing the McGowan Trainee Career Advancement Program (MTCAP). He is also a member of the Molecular and Cellular Biology Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI). Dr. Monga is also an active training faculty in Interdisciplinary Biomedical Graduate Program in the Cellular and Molecular Pathology program. Other than being on many committees, Dr. Monga is the course director for the graduate courses entitled 'Stem Cells' (3.0) and 'Research Seminars in Regenerative Medicine' (1.0). Ongoing Research:
Dr. Monga's laboratory is focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of liver growth and development in health and disease especially trying to address the molecular basis of liver development, growth, regeneration and cancer. Several signaling pathways have been identified to direct such events including the Wnt/?-catenin, HGF/Met, PDGFR? and others. Liver development in mice is initiated at around E8-8.5 stages of gestational development. Once foregut endoderm gains 'competence', hepatic signatures are initiated during the process of 'induction'. The primitive liver bud contains bipotential stem cells or progenitors, which undergo expansion and regulated differentiation into hepatocytes and biliary epithelial cells during the process of 'morphogenesis'. One of the major focuses of Monga laboratory is to identify the molecular basis of hepatic morphogenesis. More specifically how does the hepatic progenitor or the bipotential stem cell undergo self-renewal (symmetric division), lineage specification and differentiate further towards primitive bile duct cells or immature hepatocytes (asymmetric division) and then to fully differentiated cells. Using conditional null mice, embryonic liver cultures and other modalities, the lab is investigating the roles, regulation and interactions of various pathways, which will not only further our understanding of this fundamental process of biology, but might also provide insight into the molecular basis of disease that recapitulates development in adulthood-hepatocellular cancer (HCC). HCC is the third leading cause of death due to cancers and remains a disease with poor treatment options. A significant focus in Dr. Monga's laboratory is towards targeting this pathway and others, which are normally upregulated during liver development at the time of peak proliferation and stem cell renewal, as a novel therapeutic measure. In addition, various animal models have been generated in Dr. Monga's laboratory, which conditionally overexpress or show lack of expression of important genes such as ?-catenin and others, which are in the process of being studied for the role of canonical Wnt signaling in additional liver diseases such as alcoholic liver disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, glucose metabolism and others. Thus Monga lab is focused on understanding the molecular and cellular basis of normal liver characteristics such as development, regeneration, metabolism and growth as well as of liver pathologies such as neoplasms (HCC and hepatoblastoma), fibrosis, cirrhosis, alcoholic liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and others. This incorporates studies on cell proliferation, adhesion, differentiation, invasion, apoptosis, metabolism and on stem cells in adult, fetal and embryonic livers. Dr. Monga's research is and has been funded by the NIH (NIDDK, NCI, NHLBI), American Cancer Society and private pharmaceutical companies. ONLINE RESOURCES:
Dr. Monga's CV MEMBERS:
Assistant Professor:
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Lab Manager:
Others: PUBLICATIONS:
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University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine