Three young women smiling in front of a research poster presentation in a conference hall. The poster, titled 'Manner of Death in Marion County Coroner's Office from 2013 to 2020,' features graphs and research findings.

A professor or lecturer gesturing towards a blackboard in a historic anatomical museum or lecture hall. The chalkboard displays an old-fashioned lecture schedule, and another person in a white lab coat sits to the side, observing.

A group of nine young professionals or students standing together in a conference setting, smiling in front of a research poster presentation. They are dressed in business casual attire, with posters and industrial railings in the background.

Research from the Sandusky Lab

The vision of Dr. Sandusky’s pathology lab is to aid researchers on this campus with all histology, immunohistochemistry and image analysis needs from pilot studies to clinical trials. Our mission is to support the many teams of researchers on the IU Indianapolis campus. This support is mainly provided by scanning in microscope slides that allow for digital analysis and representation of the tissue.

We utilize digital whole slide imaging (DWSI) and quantitative image analysis platforms for data analysis and pathological interpretation. As a team, we focus on collaboration and communication among scientists, oncologists, surgeons and other faculty.

Areas of focus include: pathology, histology, gross anatomy, microscopy, plastination, oncology, neurology and many more. Examples of ongoing projects include clinical trials on testicular germ cell cancer, small cell lung cancer, HPV, breast cancer and endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS TBNA). We also aid in research studies such as polycystic kidney disease (PCKD), ovarian cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, infectious disease and many more.

Principal Investigator

George E. Sandusky, DVM, PhD

Research Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine

George E. Sandusky, DVM, PhD, finished his DVM at The Ohio State University in 1971, then completed pathology residency and received his doctorate in pathology at Louisiana State University in 1980. Through the years he has worked on all types of issues relating to immunohistochemistry, quantitative image analysis, tissue microarrays, tissue banking, informed consent, collection, storage, tissue requests, quality control issues and database issues.

Dr. Sandusky serves as the director and principal investigator for the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center Tissue Bank which has a very large, well annotated, high quality tissue bank with very high quality samples (Sandusky et al 2006, Sandusky et al, 2009, Tarvin and Sandusky 2014). Dr. Sandusky has mentored and taught approximately 125 undergraduate, graduate and medical students over the past 25 years in several different fall, spring, summer and yearlong internship programs requiring a completed poster and/or oral presentation.

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Lab Members

Megan Szymanski
Vivian Valadares
Amanda Werner
Mackenzie Davis
Kayli Nguyen
Olivia DeHaven
Lina Im
Nahlee Gordon
Dani Bastaic
Ryla House
Rachel Mount
Allison Smith
Aminat Ajani

Lab Publications

Combined CDK4/6 and ERK1/2 Inhibition Enhances Antitumor Activity in NF1-Associated Plexiform Neurofibroma.
Flint AC, Mitchell DK, Angus SP, Smith AE, Bessler W, Jiang L, Mang H, Li X, Lu Q, Rodriguez B, Sandusky GE, Masters AR, Zhang C, Dang P, Koenig J, Johnson GL, Shen W, Liu J, Aggarwal A, Donoho GP, Willard MD, Bhagwat SV, Clapp DW, Rhodes SD.Clin Cancer Res. 2023 Sep 1;29(17):3438-3456. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-22-2854.PMID: 37406085

Influence of genetic ancestry on breast stromal cells provides biologic basis for increased incidence of metaplastic breast cancer in women of African descent
Brijesh Kumar, Katie Batic, Poornima Bhat-Nakshatri, Maggie M Granatir, Rebekah Joann Addison, Megan Szymanski, Lee Ann Baldridge, Constance J. Temm, George Sandusky, Sandra K Althouse, Anna Maria Storniolo, Harikrishna Nakshatri
bioRxiv 2022.07.14.500115; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.07.14.500115

Loss of Dnmt3a impairs hematopoietic homeostasis and myeloid cell skewing via the PI3Kinase pathway
Palam, L. R., Ramdas, B., Pickerell, K., Pasupuleti, S. K., Kanumuri, R., Cesarano, A., Szymanski, M., Selman, B., Dave, U. P., Sandusky, G., Perna, F., Paczesny, S., & Kapur, R. (2023). JCI insight, 8(9), e163864. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.163864

Exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid leads to promotion of pancreatic cancer.
Kamendulis LM, Hocevar JM, Stephens M, Sandusky GE, Hocevar BA.Carcinogenesis. 2022 Jun 4;43(5):469-478. doi: 10.1093/carcin/bgac005.

Pathological Lung Lesions of COVID-19 and Opioid Use Disorder: A Post-Mortem Lung and Toxicology Examination of 43 Decedents
Alexis Bloom, Austyn Colter, Max Jacobsen, Domnique Battles, Tamara Alberston, George Sandusky,Department of Pathology, IUPUI, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
Marion County Coroner’s Office, Indianapolis, IN, USA. 2022 Oct 10.4236/fmar.2022.104007

Polyphenic risk score shows robust predictive ability for long-term future suicidality.
Cheng M, Roseberry K, Choi Y, Quast L, Gaines M, Sandusky G, Kline JA, Bogdan P, Niculescu AB.Discov Ment Health. 2022;2(1):13. doi: 10.1007/s44192-022-00016-z. Epub 2022 Jun 13.

Obesity-induced inflammation exacerbates clonal hematopoiesis.
Pasupuleti SK, Ramdas B, Burns SS, Palam LR, Kanumuri R, Kumar R, Pandhiri TR, Dave UP, Yellapu NK, Zhou X, Zhang C, Sandusky GE, Yu Z, Honigberg MC, Bick AG, Griffin GK, Niroula A, Ebert BL, Paczesny S, Natarajan P, Kapur R.J Clin Invest. 2023 Jun 1;133(11):e163968. doi: 10.1172/JCI163968. PMID: 370714

Signaling Pathway Alterations Driven by BRCA1 and BRCA2 Germline Mutations are Sufficient to Initiate Breast Tumorigenesis by the PIK3CAH1047R Oncogene.
Bhat-Nakshatri P, Khatpe AS, Chen D, Batic K, Mang H, Herodotou C, McGuire PC, Xuei X, Erdogan C, Gao H, Liu Y, Sandusky GE, Storniolo AM, Nakshatri H.Cancer Res Commun. 2023 Dec 7. doi: 10.1158/2767-9764.CRC-23-0330. Online ahead of print.PMID: 38059556

Stromal heterogeneity may explain increased incidence of metaplastic breast cancer in women of African descent.
Kumar B, Khatpe AS, Guanglong J, Batic K, Bhat-Nakshatri P, Granatir MM, Addison RJ, Szymanski M, Baldridge LA, Temm CJ, Sandusky G, Althouse SK, Cote ML, Miller KD, Storniolo AM, Nakshatri H.Nat Commun. 2023 Sep 14;14(1):5683. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-41473-6.PMID: 37709737

Temporal effects on death by suicide: empirical evidence and possible molecular correlates.
Bhagar R, Le-Niculescu H, Roseberry K, Kosary K, Daly C, Ballew A, Yard M, Sandusky GE, Niculescu AB.Discov Ment Health. 2023 Apr 3;3(1):10. doi: 10.1007/s44192-023-00035-4.PMID: 37861857

Integrative Multi-OMICs Identifies Therapeutic Response Biomarkers and Confirms Fidelity of Clinically Annotated, Serially Passaged Patient-Derived Xenografts Established from Primary and Metastatic Pediatric and AYA Solid Tumors.
Pandya PH, Jannu AJ, Bijangi-Vishehsaraei K, Dobrota E, Bailey BJ, Barghi F, Shannon HE, Riyahi N, Damayanti NP, Young C, Malko R, Justice R, Albright E, Sandusky GE, Wurtz LD, Collier CD, Marshall MS, Gallagher RI, Wulfkuhle JD, Petricoin EF, Coy K, Trowbridge M, Sinn AL, Renbarger JL, Ferguson MJ, Huang K, Zhang J, Saadatzadeh MR, Pollok KE.Cancers (Basel). 2022 Dec 30;15(1):259. doi: 10.3390/cancers15010259.PMID: 36612255

Metabolic Links to Socioeconomic Stresses Uniquely Affecting Ancestry in Normal Breast Tissue at Risk for Breast Cancer.
Rujchanarong D, Scott D, Park Y, Brown S, Mehta AS, Drake R, Sandusky GE, Nakshatri H, Angel PM.Front Oncol. 2022 Jun 27;12:876651. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2022.876651. eCollection 2022.

Temporal effects on death by suicide: empirical evidence and possible molecular correlates.
Bhagar R, Le-Niculescu H, Roseberry K, Kosary K, Daly C, Ballew A, Yard M, Sandusky GE, Niculescu AB.Discov Ment Health. 2023 Apr 3;3(1):10. doi: 10.1007/s44192-023-00035-4.PMID: 37861857

Regulation of cellular sterol homeostasis by the oxygen responsive noncoding RNA lincNORS
Xue Wu, Cristina M. Niculite, Mihai Bogdan Preda, Annalisa Rossi, Toma Tebaldi, Elena Butoi, Mattie K. White, Oana M. Tudoran, Daniela N. Petrusca, Amber S. Jannasch, William P. Bone, Xingyue Zong, Fang Fang, Alexandrina Burlacu, Michelle T. Paulsen, Brad A. Hancock, George E. Sandusky, Sumegha Mitra, Melissa L. Fishel, Aaron Buechlein, Cristina Ivan, Spyros Oikonomopoulos, Myriam Gorospe, Amber Mosley, …Mircea Ivan, Nat Commun 11, 4755 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18411-x

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