Man wearing a suit and glasses


Dhruvajyoti Roy, PhD
Assistant Professor

Director of Translational Pathology and Diagnostic Innovation
John Sealy Diagnostic Center
Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology
John Sealy School of Medicine

Email: dhroy@utmb.edu

  • My research interests center on cancer research, biomarker development and multi-modal, multi-omics diagnostics, with a focus on developing minimally invasive approaches for cancer detection, monitoring, and personalized treatment. My interdisciplinary experience in biotechnology, nanobiotechnology, biochemistry, and bioanalytical science has provided extensive hands-on expertise in immunoassays, next-generation sequencing (NGS), and liquid biopsy technologies, including the analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), extracellular vesicles (EVs), and circulating cell-free nucleic acids (cfNAs).

    I am particularly interested in integrating genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and cellular biomarkers to address tumor heterogeneity, improve early detection, and identify biomarkers of disease progression and therapeutic response. My goal is to translate these technologies into sensitive, robust, and clinically actionable diagnostic platforms that advance precision oncology.

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    INSTITUTION AND LOCATION DEGREE YEARFIELD OF STUDY
    Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Republic of Korea PhD
          		2011 Chemistry (Nanobiotechnology)
    C.S.J.M University, India
     
    IIEBS, Calcutta University, India
          		MSc
     
    PGDC
          		2003
     
    2001     		Chemistry (Organic Chemistry)
     
    Environmental Technology
     
    The University of Calcutta, India
          		BSc 2000 Chemistry (Hons.)
    • Poster of Distinction, AASLD, The Liver Meeting 2019, November 8-12, 2019, Boston, MA, USA (2019)
    • Outstanding Scientist award 2017 for the development of Biomedical Technology in the field of Atomic Force Microscopy Detection and Cancer Diagnostics (IEEE) (2017)
    • Award winner in the Student Poster Competition for outstanding poster presentation in Pacifichem 2010, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A. by the International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies (2010).
    • Graduate Fellowship from Brain Korea 21 project of South Korea (2005-2011).
    • Awarded Master of Science in Ecology & Environment from SMU, India (2003).
    • National Scholarships Scheme Merit Certificate, India (1994).
  • 2026-PresentDirector of Translational Pathology and Diagnostic Innovation, Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA
    2023-2026Assistant Professor, Division of Surgery, The University of Texas     MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
    2018-2023Director of Technology Development /Medical Science Affairs, Helio Genomics, Irvine, CA, USA
    2015-2018 Lead Scientist, Cynvenio Biosystems, Inc., Westlake Village, CA, USA
    2011-2015 Senior Scientist (Project Leader), Nanogea Corporation, Culver City, CA, USA
    2005-2011 Graduate Research Fellow, Department of Chemistry, POSTECH, Republic of Korea
    2004-2005 Research Scientist, Department of Chemistry, POSTECH, Republic of Korea
     
    2003-2004 Research Fellow, Department of Chemistry, University of Calcutta, India
    2002-2003 Graduate Research Participant, Department of Environmental Science, Jadavpur University, India
    1. Roy, D., et al. (2026). The prognostic value of circulating stem cells expressing PD-L1 in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Journal of Hepatocellular Carcinoma, 13. https://doi.org/10.2147/JHC.S598753
    2. Roy, D., et al. (2026). Longitudinal monitoring of circulating tumor cell dynamics for potential prediction of early recurrence and clinical outcomes after curative resection of hepatocellular carcinoma: A pilot study. BMC Cancer, 26, 289. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-026-15638-7
    3. Chen, J. H., Addanki, S., Roy, D., et al. (2024). Monitoring response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in triple negative breast cancer using circulating tumor DNA. BMC Cancer, 24(1), 1016. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-024-12689-6
    4. Roy, D., et al. (2024). Comprehensive circulating cytokine/chemokine profiles for monitoring and predicting clinical outcomes in melanoma neoadjuvant immunotherapy. The Journal of Liquid Biopsy, 5, 100222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlb.2024.100222
    5. Roy, D., et al. (2023). Blood-based circulating tumor cells and cell-free DNA monitoring for dynamic recurrence risk prediction in melanoma. The Journal of Liquid Biopsy, 1, 100039. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlb.2023.100039
    6. Lin, N., Lin, Y., Xu, J., Liu, D., Li, D., Meng, H., Gallant, M. A., Kubota, N., Roy, D., et al. (2022). A multi-analyte cell-free DNA–based blood test for early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatology Communications, 6(7), 1753–1763. https://doi.org/10.1002/hep4.1918
    7. Roy, D., et al. (2021). Cell-free circulating tumor DNA profiling in cancer management. Trends in Molecular Medicine, 27(10), 1014–1015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmed.2021.07.001
    8. Roy, D., et al. (2021). The potential of aptamer-mediated liquid biopsy for early detection of cancer. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 22(11), 5601. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22115601
    9. Roy, D., et al. (2020). Diagnostic power of DNA methylation classifiers for early detection of cancer. Trends in Cancer, 6(2), 78–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trecan.2019.12.006
    10. Roy, D., et al. (2019). Circulating cell-free DNA methylation assay: Towards early detection of multiple cancer types. Cancer Research, 79(13_Supplement), 837. https://doi.org/10.1158/1538-7445.AM2019-837
    11. Roy, D., et al. (2017). Non-invasive liquid biopsies become a reality in today’s personalized cancer treatment. Journal of Biosensors, Biomarkers and Diagnostics, 2(2), 1–2.
    12. Lee, Y., Kim, Y., Lee, D., Roy, D., et al. (2016). Quantification of fewer than ten copies of a DNA biomarker without amplification or labeling. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 138(22), 7075–7081. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6b02791
    13. Roy, D., et al. (2015). Spatially nanoscale-controlled functional surfaces toward efficient bioactive platforms. Journal of Materials Chemistry B, 3(26), 5135–5149. https://doi.org/10.1039/C5TB00529A
    14. Roy, D., et al. (2010). “Seeing and counting” individual antigens captured on a microarrayed spot with force-based atomic force microscopy. Analytical Chemistry, 82(12), 5189–5194. https://doi.org/10.1021/ac100476b
    15. Roy, D., et al. (2008). Dendron-modified polystyrene microtiter plate: Surface characterization with picoforce AFM and influence of spacing between immobilized amyloid beta proteins. Langmuir, 24(24), 14296–14305. https://doi.org/10.1021/la801872r