Mukund Seshadri, DDS, PhD

Senior Vice President and Dean, Office of Cancer Education and Training
Director, Faculty Development and Mentoring Program
Chair, Department of Oral Oncology

Research Interests:

  • Vascular biology of head and neck cancers
  • Chemoprevention of oral cancer
  • Multimodal imaging (CT, US, Photoacoustic imaging)

Positions

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center

  • Senior Vice President and Dean, Office of Cancer Education and Training
  • Professor of Oncology
  • Director, Faculty Development and Mentoring Program
  • Chair – Department of Oral Oncology

State University of New York at Buffalo

  • Member, Department of Radiology - Medical Physics Program
  • Member, Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences

Research Overview

My clinical and research interests are focused on understanding the biology of oral/head and neck cancers and developing novel therapies for these aggressive malignancies. Research within my laboratory-based program is conducted under three main themes: 

(i) Development and validation of non-invasive imaging biomarkers of tumor response to chemoradiation and immunotherapy using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound (US), photoacoustic imaging (PAI) and computed tomography (CT) methods.

(ii) Application of machine learning and artificial intelligence (ML/AI) methods for early detection of oral cancer and for and for modeling normal tissue complication probability.

(iii) Development of clinically relevant 3D in vitro and in vivo models to screen and test the anticancer efficacy of novel drugs including repurposing of existing FDA-approved drugs used for other indications (e.g. Metformin, Propranolol).

 The work is interdisciplinary in nature and draws on concepts from radiology, oncology, pharmacology, cancer biology and therapeutics. 

Clinical research studies are focused on understanding the clinical risk factors associated with poor outcomes and for developing oral health complications including severe dry mouth (xerostomia) and osteonecrosis, in cancer patients. 

Sources of funding: National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Center for Research Resources, American Brain Tumor Association, American Cancer Society, Roswell Park Alliance Foundation.

Your $1 donation turns into $23 in cancer research funding Doctoral Research Leads to Clinical Trial in Head and Neck Cancers

Featured on CancerTalk

Your $1 donation turns into $23 in cancer research funding
Roswell Park employee works in a lab.
Doctoral Research Leads to Clinical Trial in Head and Neck Cancers

Publications

  Full Publications list on PubMed

Key Publications:

  • Ku SY, Rosario S, Wang Y, Mu P, Seshadri M, Goodrich ZW, Goodrich MM, Labbé DP, Gomez EC, Wang J, Long HW, Xu B, Brown M, Loda M, Sawyers CL, Ellis L, Goodrich DW. Rb1 and Trp53 cooperate to suppress prostate cancer lineage plasticity, metastasis, and antiandrogen resistance. Science. 2017 Jan 6;355(6320):78-83
  • Rich L and Seshadri M. Photoacoustic Imaging of Salivary Glands. Biomed Opt Express. 2015 Jul. 6(9):3157-62
  • Law WC, Xu Z, Yong KT, Liu X, Swihart MT, Seshadri M and Prasad PN. Manganese-doped near-infrared emitting nanocrystals for in vivo biomedical imaging. Opt. Express. 2016;24(16):17553-17561. Rich L and Seshadri M. Photoacoustic imaging of tumor and normal tissue response to radiation. Sci Rep. 2016 Feb 7;6:21237.
  • Rich LJ, Winslow T, Repasky EA, Seshadri M, Singh AK. Enhanced tumour perfusion following treatment with water-filtered IR-A radiation to the thorax in a patient with head and neck cancer. International Journal of Hyperthermia. 2016 32:5, 539-542. PMID: 27150820. DOI: 10.3109/02656736.2016.1167259
  • Folaron M, Seshadri M. Bioluminescence and MR Imaging of the Safety and Efficacy of Vascular Disruption in Gliomas. Mol Imaging Biol. 2016 Dec;18(6):860-869.
  • Bothwell KD, Shaurova T, Merzianu M, Suresh A, Kuriakose MA, Johnson CS, Hershberger PA, Seshadri M. Impact of Short-term 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 on the Chemopreventive Efficacy of Erlotinib against Oral Cancer. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2015 Sep;8(9):765-76.{Cover Feature}
  • Rich LJ, Seshadri M. Photoacoustic imaging of vascular hemodynamics: Validation with BOLD MRI. Radiology 2015. 275(1):110-8. {Featured on Science to Practice}
  • Zhang Y, Jeon M, Rich LJ, Hong H, Geng J, Zhang Y, Shi S, Barnhart TE, Alexandridis P, Huizinga JD, Seshadri M, Cai W, Kim C and Lovell JF. Non-invasive multimodal functional imaging of the intestine with frozen micellar napthalocyanines. Nature Nanotechnol. 2014 Aug;9(8):631-8 Wang E, Pili R and Seshadri M. Modulation of chemotherapeutic efficacy by VDAs: Optimizing the sequence and schedule. J Clin Oncol. 2012 Mar1; 30(7):760-1.