Our Faculty

Background

Asit Panja joined Binghamton University’s Occupational Therapy division as a clinical professor in September 2023. He is a physician-scientist with multidisciplinary research and teaching experience in biomedical sciences. In addition to his role at Binghamton University, he is also an adjunct professor at Hostos Community College and NYC College of Technology, both part of the City University of New York system. Simultaneously, Panja maintains a voluntary affiliation as an adjunct associate professor of medicine with Rutgers University’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey.

Panja previously served as the chief scientific officer of AlfaGene Bioscience Inc. in New Jersey, director of gastrointestinal research at Winthrop University Hospital and associate professor of research medicine at the SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor of medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

Panja has made several important contributions in the field of mucosal immunology and chronic inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. His work at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine first raised the possibility of a nonclassical mechanism of antigen handling in the human GI tract. Subsequently, he further advanced this concept of distinct cell: cell (lymphoepithelial) interactions as the norm in the mucosal immune system. He and his team recently developed numerous technologies with human GI stem cells. 

Panja has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and is named inventor on four patents issued by USPTO and one patent issued by EUPTO.

Education

• MD, Medical Academy, Sofia, Bulgaria

Research Interests

• Translational bio-medical collaborative research
• Mucosal immunity
• Chronic inflammatory diseases and disorders
• Gastrointestinal stem and epithelial cell
• Colorectal cancer
• Pre-clinical drug discovery and development
• Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine

Clinical Interests

• Gastrointestinal diseases
• Chronic inflammatory diseases and disorders
• Autoimmunity
• Regenerative medicine
• Cell therapy

Teaching Interests

• Kinesiology
• Research methodology
• Translational research and sciences
• Anatomy and physiology
• Pathophysiology
• Immunology
• Pharmacology
• Cell and molecular biology