Neeraj Kapur, PhD
Connect
nka267@uky.eduPositions
- Assistant Professor
College Unit(s)
Other Affiliation(s)
- Internal Medicine - Digestive Health
Biography and Education
Biography
As a researcher at the University of Kentucky, my goal is to find better ways to help patients living with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). My work focuses on 'mucosal healing', helping the lining of the gut repair itself after it has been damaged by inflammation.
We have discovered that the 'powerhouses' of our cells (the mitochondria) often don't work correctly in patients with IBD, which prevents ulcers from healing. I am currently leading studies on a new oral treatment, which is designed to restart these cellular powerhouses. By improving how cells breathe and restoring a healthy balance of gut bacteria, we hope to create new therapies that help patients achieve long-lasting remission and a better quality of life.
Education
- Postdoctoral Fellowship (Cancer Biology): Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA
- PhD in Molecular Virology: All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, India
- MS in Biotechnology: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, India
- BS in Zoology (Hons): Hindu College, Delhi University, India
Research
Dr. Neeraj Kapur’s research focuses on understanding how mitochondrial metabolism regulates intestinal epithelial cell function, mucosal healing, and host–microbiome interactions in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). His work integrates epithelial biology, microbiome science, metabolomics, and translational therapeutics to investigate how mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to chronic intestinal inflammation, dysbiosis, and impaired ulcer healing. A major emphasis of his research is the development of novel mitochondrial-targeted therapies, to restore epithelial oxidative metabolism, promote mucosal repair, and improve microbial homeostasis in IBD and related gastrointestinal disorders. His studies combine human biopsy analyses, advanced multi-omic approaches, germ-free and humanized mouse models, and translational therapeutic strategies aimed at improving outcomes for patients with chronic inflammatory diseases.
Selected Publications
Kapur N, Hassan SA. Editorial: New insights into gut microbiota in colorectal cancer. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2026 Feb 4;16:1788000. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2026.1788000. PMID: 41716463; PMCID: PMC12913520.
Kapur N*, Lynch EB*, Goretsky T, Bradford EM, Vekaria H, Bhogoju S, Hassan SA, Pauw E, Avdiushko MG, Lee G, Gao T, Sullivan PG, Barrett TA. Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase Signaling Enhances Intestinal Crypt Epithelial Cell Recovery after Radiation. Am J Pathol. 2025 Aug;195(8):1411-1427. doi: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2025.04.010. Epub 2025 Apr 30. PMID: 40316215; PMCID: PMC12405924.
Haque PS, Kapur N, Barrett TA, Theiss AL. Mitochondrial function and gastrointestinal diseases. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2024 Aug;21(8):537-555. doi: 10.1038/s41575-024-00931-2. Epub 2024 May 13. PMID: 38740978; PMCID: PMC12036329.
Hassan SA, Kapur N, Sheikh F, Fahad A, Jamal S. Disease clearance in ulcerative colitis: A new therapeutic target for the future. World J Gastroenterol. 2024 Apr 7;30(13):1801-1809. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v30.i13.1801. PMID: 38659483; PMCID: PMC11036494.
Kapur N, Alam MA, Hassan SA, Patel PH, Wempe LA, Bhogoju S, Goretsky T, Kim JH, Herzog J, Ge Y, Awuah SG, Byndloss M, Baumler AJ, Zadeh MM, Sartor RB, Barrett T. Enhanced mucosal mitochondrial function corrects dysbiosis and OXPHOS metabolism in IBD. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2024 Mar 14:2024.03.14.584471. doi: 10.1101/2024.03.14.584471. PMID: 38559035; PMCID: PMC10979996.
Sun J, Ince MN, Abraham C, Barrett T, Brenner LA, Cong Y, Dashti R, Dudeja PK, Elliott D, Griffith TS, Heeger PS, Hoisington A, Irani K, Kim TK, Kapur N, Leventhal J, Mohamadzadeh M, Mutlu E, Newberry R, Peled JU, Rubinstein I, Sengsayadeth S, Tan CS, Tan XD, Tkaczyk E, Wertheim J, Zhang ZJ. Modulating microbiome-immune axis in the deployment-related chronic diseases of Veterans: report of an expert meeting. Gut Microbes. 2023 Dec;15(2):2267180. doi: 10.1080/19490976.2023.2267180. Epub 2023 Oct 16. PMID: 37842912; PMCID: PMC10580853.
Perry C, Kapur N, Barrett TA. DDP-4 as a Novel Biomarker for Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Is It Ready for Clinical Use? Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2020 Jan 8.
Thomas JK, Mir H, Kapur N, and Singh S. Racial Differences in Immunological Landscape Modifiers Contributing to Disparity in Prostate Cancer. Cancers (Basel). 2019 Nov 25;11(12).
Saunder IT, Mir H, Kapur N, and Singh S. Emodin inhibits colon cancer by altering BCL-2 family proteins and cell survival pathways. Cancer Cell Int. 2019 Apr 15:19-98.
Kapur N, Mir H, Sonpavde G, Jain S, Bae S, Lillard JW, and Singh S. Prostate cancer cells hyper-activate CXCR6 signaling by cleaving CXCL16 to overcome effect of docetaxel. Cancer letters 2019 Apr 8;454:1- 13.
Thomas JK, Mir H, Kapur N, and Singh S. CC chemokines are differentially expressed in Breast Cancer and areassociated with disparity in overall survival. Scientific Reports 2019 Mar 8;9(1):4014.
Mir H, Kaur G, Kapur N, Bae S, Lillard JW, and Singh S. Higher CXCL16 exodomain is associated with aggressive ovarian cancer and promotes the disease by CXCR6 activation and MMP modulation. Scientific Reports 2019 Feb 21;9(1):2527.
Carriere PP, Kapur N, Mir H, Ward AB, Singh S. Cinnamtannin B-1 inhibits cell survival molecules and induces apoptosis in colon cancer. Int J Oncol. 2018 Oct;53(4):1442-1454.
Ward AB, Mir H, Kapur N, Gales DN, Carriere PP, Singh S. Quercetin inhibits prostate cancer by attenuating cell survival and inhibiting antiapoptotic pathways. World J Surg Oncol. 2018 Jun 14;16(1):108.
Kapur N, Mir H, Clark, III CE, Krishnamurti U, Beech DJ, Lillard Jr JW, Singh S. Higher CCR6 in colon cancer is associated with advanced disease and supports epithelial to mesenchymal transition. Brit. J Cancer, 2016; 114,1343-51.
Mir H, Kapur N, Singh R, Sonpavde G, Lillard Jr JW, Singh S. Andrographolide inhibits prostate cancer by targeting cell cycle regulators, CXCR3 and CXCR7 chemokine receptors. Cell cycle, 2016; 15(6): 819-26.
Singh R, Kapur N, Mir H, Singh N, Lillard Jr JW, Singh S. CXCR6- CXCL16 axis promotes prostate cancer by mediating cytoskeleton rearrangement via activating Ezrin and αvβ3 integrin clustering. Oncotarget, 2016; 7(6): 7343-53.
Panda SK, Kapur N, Paliwal D, Durgapal H. Recombinant Hepatitis E virus like particles can function as RNA nanocarriers. J Nanobiotechnology, 2015; 13:44.
Paliwal D, Panda SK, Kapur N, Varma SP, Durgapal H. Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) Protease: a chymotrypsinlike enzyme that processes both non-structural (pORF1) and capsid (pORF2) protein. J Gen Virol., 2014; 95(8):1689-700.
Kapur N, Thakral D, Durgapal H, Panda SK. Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) enters liver cell through receptor dependent clathrin-mediated endocytosis. J Viral Hepat., 2012; 19(6): 436-48.
Varma SP, Kumar A, Kapur N, Durgapal H, Acharya SK, Panda SK. Hepatitis E virus replication involves alternating negative- and positivesense RNA synthesis. J Gen Virol., 2011; 92: 572-81.
Rehman S, Kapur N, Durgapal H, Panda SK. Subcellular localization of hepatitis E virus (HEV) replicase. Virology, 2008; 370: 77-92.