Lopa Mishra, MD, is putting her years of disease research to use as the newly appointed co-director of the Institute of Bioelectronic Medicine at The Feinstein Institutes in Manhasset, N.Y.
"It's such an exciting new field," Dr. Mishra said. "Bioelectronic medicine basically combines molecular medicine, neuroscience and biomed engineering. The whole goal is to take these innovative treatment strategies that have already worked in some areas, including paralysis and inflammatory bowel disease, to cancer."
Dr. Mishra began her career studying liver diseases; she worked for famed hepatologist Sheila Sherlock, MD, after taking one of her courses in medical school at the University of London.
"It was in those days, a lot of my patients had liver cancer, or alcoholic hepatitis or conditions that really led to end-stage liver disease. And a lot of my patients died. And I always wanted to make a difference to that," she said.
At Feinstein, she and the Bioelectronic Medicine team plan to explore the roles nerve pathways play in disease development, cancer in particular.
"We're looking at really innovative approaches from mouse models to actual therapeutics targeting this. So in a year's time, we'd like to take this to clinical trial," she said. "I'm really looking forward to working on these new frontiers that our research has led to."