Dr. Kamaljit Kaur

Dr. Kamaljit Kaur (she/her/hers)

Associate Professor
School of Pharmacy
Expertise: Antimicrobial Peptides; Pathogenic Bacteria; Breast Cancer; Cancer-Targeting Agents; Cancer Diagnostics;
Office Location: Rinker Health Science Campus 297X
Phone: (714) 516-5494
Scholarly Works:
Digital Commons
Education:
University of Delhi, Bachelor of Science
Indian Institute of Technology, Master of Science
Case Western Reserve University, Ph.D.

Biography

Dr. Kamaljit Kaur is an Associate Professor of Targeted Drug Delivery and Biomedical Diagnostics at the Chapman University School of Pharmacy (CUSP)

Kamaljit Kaur received her Ph.D. in Bioorganic Chemistry from Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio). She was a postdoctoral fellow at Wesleyan University (Connecticut) before moving to the University of Alberta (Canada), where she joined the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences as an Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in 2004.  In 2014, she moved to Chapman University (Irvine, California) as a Distinguished Chancellor Fellow, transitioning to a full-time role as a founding member of the Chapman University School of Pharmacy faculty in 2015.  Her research focuses on engineering peptides for biomedical applications and elucidating their mechanism of action.  Current ongoing projects in her lab include (i) Peptide-drug conjugates (PDCs) for targeted drug delivery to cancer, (ii) Conjugates for targeted drug delivery to the brain for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) treatment, and (iii) Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs) against pathogenic Gram-positive and Gram-negative multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria.

Kaur has published 75 peer-reviewed articles (h-index = 38), four book chapters, been listed as an inventor in 3 approved patents, and has presented 34 invited talks.  She serves on the review panel of several granting agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).  She is currently an editorial board member for the journals Scientific Reports and Pharmaceutics, and serves on the American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Medicinal Chemistry - Long Range Planning Committee (LRPC). 

Selected Publications

Targeted Drug Delivery

Ziaei, I. Paiva, S. Yao, N. Sarrami, P. Mehinrad, J. Lai, A. Lavasanifar*, K. Kaur*, Peptide-Drug Conjugate Targeting Keratin 1 Inhibits Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in Mice, Mol. Pharm., 2023, 3570. [Pubmed]

Alas, A. Saghaeidehkordi, K. Kaur*, Peptide-Drug Conjugates with Different Linkers for Cancer Therapy, J. Med. Chem.2021, 216. [Pubmed]

Ziaei, A. Saghaeidehkordi, C. Dill, I. Maslennikov, S. Chen, K. Kaur*, Targeting Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells with Novel Cytotoxic Peptide-Doxorubicin Conjugates, Biocon. Chem., 2019, 3098. [Pubmed]

Soudy, A. Patel, W. Fu, K. Kaur, D. MacTavish, D. Westaway, R. Davey, J. Zajac, J. Jhamandas*, Cyclic AC253, a novel amylin receptor antagonist, improves cognitive deficits in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s Disease, Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, 2017, 44. [Pubmed]

Antimicrobial Peptides

Etayash, M.F. Khan, K. Kaur*, T. Thundat*, Microfluidic cantilever detects bacteria and measures their susceptibility to antibiotics in small confined volumes, Nature Comm.2016, 12947. [Pubmed]

Kaur*, O. Tarassova, R.V. Dangeti, S. Azmi, D. Wishart, L. McMullen, M. Stiles, Characterization of a highly potent antimicrobial peptide microcin N from Uropathogenic Escherichia coli, FEMS Microbiol. Lett.2016, 363. [Pubmed]

Soliman, L.Wang, S. Bhattacharjee, and K. Kaur*, Structure-activity relationships of an antimicrobial peptide Plantaricin S from two-Peptide class IIb bacteriocins, J. Med. Chem.2011, 2399. [Pubmed]

Recent Creative, Scholarly Work and Publications

Elmira Ziaei, Igor Moura de Paiva, Shih-Jing Yao, Nasim Sarrami, Parnian Mehinrad, Justine Lai, Afsaneh Lavasanifar*, Kamaljit Kaur*, Peptide-Drug Conjugate Targeting Keratin 1 Inhibits Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in Mice, Mol. Pharm., 2023, 20, 3570-3577.
Shirley Tong, Shaban Darwish, Hanieh Hossein Nejad Ariani, Kate Alison Lozada, David Salehi, Maris A. Cinelli, Richard B. Silverman, Kamaljit Kaur*, Sun Yang*, A small peptide increases drug delivery in human melanoma cells, Pharmaceutics 2022, 14, 1036.
Oluseye Ogunnigbagbe, Christopher G. Bunick*, Kamaljit Kaur*, Keratin 1 as a cell-surface receptor in cancer, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) – Reviews on Cancer 2022, 1877, 188664.
Harpreet Dhingra, Kamaljit Kaur, Baljit Singh*, Engineering and characterization of human ß-defensin-3 and its analogues and microcin J25 peptides against Mannheimia haemolytica and bovine neutrophils, Vet. Res. 2021, 52, 83.
Azam Saghaeidehkordi, Shiuan Chen, Sun Yang, Kamaljit Kaur*, Evaluation of a keratin 1 targeting peptide-doxorubicin conjugate in a mouse model of triple-negative breast cancer, Pharmaceutics 2021, 13, 661.
Mona Alas, Azam Saghaeidehkordi, Kamaljit Kaur*, Peptide-drug conjugates with different linkers for cancer therapy, J. Med. Chem. 2021, 64, 216-232.
H. Hossein-Nejad-Ariani, E. Althagafi, K. Kaur*, Small peptide ligands for targeting EGFR in triple negative breast cancer cells, Sci. Rep. (Nature Publishing Group), 2019, 9, 2723:1-10.
R. Soudy, R. Kimura, A. Patel, W. Fu, K. Kaur, D. Westaway, J. Yang, J. Jhamandas*, Short amylin receptor antagonist peptides improve memory deficits in Alzheimer’s disease mouse model, Sci. Rep. (Nature Publishing Group), 2019, 9, 10942:1-11.
E. Ziaei, A. Saghaeidehkordi, C. Dill, I. Maslennikov, S. Chen, K. Kaur*, Targeting Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells with Novel Cytotoxic Peptide-Doxorubicin Conjugates, Biocon. Chem., 2019, 30, 3098-3106.
Hanieh Hossein-Nejad-Ariani, Tushar Kim, K. Kaur*, Peptide-based Biosensor Utilizing Fluorescent Gold Nanoclusters for Detection of Listeria monocytogenes, ACS Appl. Nano Mater. 2018, 1, 3389-3397.
W. Mohammed-Saeid, R. Soudy, R. Tikoo, K. Kaur, R. Verrall, I. Badea*, Design and evaluation of gemini surfactant-based lipoplexes modified with cell-binding peptide for targeted gene therapy in melanoma model, J. Pharm. Pharm. Sci., 2018, 21, 363-375.
H. Soleymani Abyaneh, A.H. Soleimani, M.R. Vakili, R. Soudy, K. Kaur, F. Cuda, A. Tavassoli, A. Lavasanifar*, Modulation of Hypoxia-Induced Chemoresistance to Polymeric Micellar Cisplatin: The Effect of Ligand Modification of Micellar Carrier Versus Inhibition of the Mediators of Drug Resistance, Pharmaceutics, 2018, 10, 196.
S.B. Patil, R.M. Al-Jehani, H. Etayash, V. Turbe, K. Jiang, J. Bailey, W. Al-Akkad, R. Soudy, K. Kaur, R.A. McKendry, T. Thundat, J.W. Ndieyira*, Modified cantilever arrays improve sensitivity and reproducibility of nanomechanical sensing in living cells, Commun. Biol. (Nature Publishing Group) 2018, 1, 175.
H. Etayash, T. Thundat, K. Kaur*, Bacterial Detection using Peptide-based Platform and Impedance Spectroscopy, in Methods Mol. Biol., Biosensors and Biodetection: Methods and Protocols, Second Edition, Edited by Avraham Rasooly and Ben Prickril, 2017, Vol 1572, 113-124.
S.M. Garg, I.M. Paiva, M.R. Vakili, R. Soudy, K. Agopsowicz, A.H. Soleimani, M. Hitt, K. Kaur, A. Lavasanifar*, Traceable PEO-poly(ester) micelles for breast cancer targeting: The effect of core structure and targeting peptide on micellar tumor accumulation, Biomaterials 2017, 144, 17-29.
D.R. Balay, R.V. Dangeti, K. Kaur, L.M. McMullen*, Purification of leucocin A for use on wieners to inhibit Listeria monocytogenes in the presence of spoilage organisms, Int. J. Food Microbiol., 2017, 255, 25-31.
R. Soudy, A. Patel, W. Fu, K. Kaur, D. MacTavish, D. Westaway, R. Davey, J. Zajac, J. Jhamandas*, Cyclic AC253, a novel amylin receptor antagonist, improves cognitive deficits in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s Disease, Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, 2017, 3, 44-56.
P.M. Shaibani, H. Etayash, S. Naicker, K. Kaur, T. Thundat*, Metabolic Study of Cancer Cells using a pH Sensitive Hydrogel Nanofiber Light Addressable Potentiometric Sensor (NF-LAPS), ACS Sens. 2017, 2, 151-156.
R. Soudy, H. Etayash, K. Bahadorani, A. Lavasanifar, K. Kaur*, Breast Cancer Targeting Peptide Binds Keratin 1: A New Molecular Marker for Targeted Drug Delivery to Breast Cancer, Mol. Pharm., 2017, 14, 593-604.
Y. Raghuwanshi, H. Etayash, R. Soudy, I. Paiva, A. Lavasanifar, K. Kaur*, Proteolytically stable cyclic decapeptide for breast cancer cell targeting, J. Med. Chem. 2017, 60, 4893-4903.
W. Fu, V. Vukojevic, A. Patel, R. Soudy, D. MacTavish, D. Westaway, K. Kaur, V. Goncharuk, J. Jhamandas*, Role of microglial amylin receptors in mediating beta amyloid (Aß)-induced inflammation, J. Neuroinflammation, 2017, 14, 199.
Jack Jhamandas, Rania Soudy, Kamaljit Kaur, When Fu, David, Mactavish, Aarti Patel, Brain Penetrant Amylin Receptor Based Peptides for Alzheimer’s Disease, U.S. Patent Application No. 62/396,370 filed May 2017.