Deepak Kotiya, PhD

Dr. Deepak Kotiya is a research scientist at the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging at the University of Kentucky. His current research focuses on arginine metabolism, amino acid-sensing pathways, and tauopathies, including Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative disorders. Through this work, he seeks to define the metabolic and molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration and identify novel therapeutic targets for age-related brain diseases.

Before joining the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, Dr. Kotiya conducted research in the Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Kentucky examining how dysregulated amylin metabolism contributes to Alzheimer’s disease. His work investigated the molecular links between pancreatic amyloid-forming amylin, cerebral amyloid-β (Aβ) pathology, and neurodegeneration. Drawing on his expertise in molecular and cellular biology, he developed ELISA-based assays, generated antibodies and utilized multiple transgenic rodent models expressing human amylin and Aβ.

Among his principal research contributions, Dr. Kotiya contributed to the development and characterization of conditional transgenic mouse models expressing human amylin in the pancreas, both with and without APP/PS1 genotype. These models enable pancreatic human amylin expression to be selectively up- or downregulated through tamoxifen administration, allowing to examine how changes in amylin expression affect Alzheimer’s disease pathology. He also developed an ELISA-based assay to detect and quantify amylin-Aβ hetero-oligomers in biological samples, providing a potential platform for investigating their role as biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, he investigated passive amylin immunotherapy as a potential therapeutic strategy for reducing amylin and Aβ plaque burden in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease. He served as a principal investigator (PI) for this work which was supported by the Alzheimer’s Association AARF-2024 International Research Grant. 

Dr. Kotiya earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India. His doctoral research examined the role of the nuclear receptor pregnane X receptor (PXR) in hepatocellular carcinoma, establishing the foundation for his broader interest in metabolic signaling, disease mechanisms, and translational biomedical research.