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Vaskar Das, PhD

Vaskar Das
Assistant Professor
Department of Anesthesiology, RUSH Medical College
Education

PhD in Neuropharmacology, The University of Queensland, Australia

Post Doctoral Training, Pain Plasticity Mechanism, The University of Texas at Dallas, US

Post Doctoral Training, Acute and Chronic Pain, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, US

 

Research Areas

Vaskar Das, PhD is currently working on National Institutes of Health-funded pain research as a co-investigator. His research has focused on new non-opioid treatments for acute and chronic pain by following the key energy sensor AMPK (adenosine mono-phosphate activated kinase) and the pain-relieving effect of the ketamine metabolite (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine. 

His Cohn research will expand to assess the pain-relieving efficiency and mechanisms of AMPK activators in peripheral tissue injury pain. One immediate outcome of this research will be much-needed pharmacological understanding of AMPK activators for low back pain and post-surgical pain. 

Contact Info:

1653 W. Congress Pkwy
Department of Anesthesiology
Jelke Room 1499
Chicago, IL 60612
Phone: 312-942-7608
Fax: 312-942-8858
Vaskar_Das@rush.edu
 
Links:
Biography

Vaskar Das, PhD’s major research interest is the discovering and development of analgesic drugs as an alternative pain medication to replace opioids for treatment of chronic pain. Ameliorate of chronic pain is very difficult to treat with current medication. Some of the examples of such disease condition are osteoarthritis (OA), low back pain (disc degeneration diseases) and postherpetic neuralgic pain (PHN), which is often recalcitrant to existing analgesics. Hence, during the course of his postdoctoral and PhD research program, he established, and pharmacologically validated various pain model in rodent. Examples of  such, acute and chronic pain models are: (i) postoperative pain model, (ii) complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) model, (iii) low back pain (disc degeneration diseases) model, (iv) spared nerve injury (SNI) neuropathic pain model, (v) migraine pain model, (vi) osteoarthritis pain model in mice and (vii) optimized rat model of Varicella zoster virus (VZV)-induced neuropathic pain (postherpetic neuralgia) under the supervision of Prof. Asokumar Buvanendran, MD, Prof. Jeffrey S. Kroin, Prof. Robert J McCarthy (D-Pharm), Department of Anesthesiology, Rush University Medical Center and Prof. Maree Smith (CIPDD (Centre for Integrated Preclinical Drug Development) and School of Pharmacy, the University of Queensland (UQ).

He has invented a new device for the assessment of cold allodynia in the hind paws of rodent models of neuropathic pain that overcomes the limitations of currently available commercial devices. A prototype of that device is currently being built at the UQ Department of Physics workshop and it is ready for beta testing.

To date, Das has presented research findings at various scientific conferences as “Young Investigator” including the annual scientific meetings of American Society of Anesthesiologists meeting (ASA; October 19-20, 2019 & October 14, 2018), the Australian Pain Society (APS), the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists (ASCEPT), the Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association (APSA) and the Special Interest Group of the International Association for the Study of Pain (NeuPSIG).

Honors and Activities

2010: Ph.D. scholarship (Australian Postgraduate Award). 
2011: Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists travel award.
2011: Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association travel award. 
2012: Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists- Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association travel award.
2012: Finalist for poster prize at the joint annual scientific meeting of Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists- Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association, Sydney, Dec 2012. 
2013: Australian Pain Society, Ph.D. student travel award.
2013: Spinifex Pharmaceuticals travel award for 4th International Congress on Neuropathic Pain (Special Interest Group) conference in Toronto. 
2013: The University of Queensland science faculty grants to build prototype for cold allodynia device. 
2013: The University of Queensland Research Scholar Scholarship Award.
2018: American Society of Anesthesiologists, Young Investigator Award for Basic Science at American Society of Anesthesiologist Annual Meeting, October 14th, 2018.
2019: American Society of Anesthesiologists Young Investigator Award for Basic Science at American Society of Anesthesiologists Annual Meeting, October 19th, 2019.
2020: Cohn Fellowship Award (April 2020-June 2021)
2020: American Society of Anesthesiologists Young Investigator Award for Basic Science at American Society of Anesthesiologists Annual Meeting
2020: Schweppe Foundation Award and Armour Bequest Award
2021: American Society of Anesthesiologists, Best of Abstracts: Basic Science

 

Publications

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/vaskar.das.1/bibliography/public/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uoob9I8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
 

Grants

2021-2022 (Schweppe Foundation): Ketamine Metabolite, (2R, 6R) - Hydroxynorketamine as an Alternative Analgesic Target in Low Back Pain, Evaluation of Direct and Indirect Analgesic Efficacy in a Murine Low Back Pain Model.

2020-2021 (Cohn Fellowship): Das’ Cohn research will expand to assess the pain-relieving efficiency and mechanisms of AMPK activators in peripheral tissue injury pain. One immediate outcome of this research will be much-needed pharmacological understanding of AMPK activators for low back pain and post-surgical pain.

2019-2021 (RO-1 supplement for the Burn’s R01AT009680-01A1 grant): New Non-Opioid Treatments for Acute and Chronic Pain: Mechanism of the Analgesic Effect of the Ketamine Metabolite, (2R,6R)-Hydroxynorketamine. From this support, we will determine if the analgesic effect of (2R,6R)-HNK injection is associated with differences in glutamate ionotropic receptor AMPA type subunits 1 and 2 (GluA1), (GluA2), brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF), and mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) in hippocampus and prefrontal cortex brain slices using Western Blot (WB) analysis in 4 validated models of pain. Role (Co-Investigator): Vaskar Das, Ph.D.