Dr Jehangir Cama
Dr Jehangir Cama is a biophysicist, translational scientist and entrepreneur.
He completed his PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge and the Cavendish Laboratory, focusing on biological membrane transport processes, with a particular interest in the transport of small molecule antibiotics across bacterial and biomimetic membranes. He developed expertise in the use and development of microfluidic techniques, which have a range of applications in both biomedical research and biosensing. He also collaborated with the Department of Genetics on studying bacterial signaling. Following his PhD, Jehangir continued his postdoctoral research at the Cavendish, and joined Clare Hall as a Research Fellow (2016-19). He subsequently moved to the Living Systems Institute at the University of Exeter as an industrial research fellow (2019-22) where, in addition to his research, he developed partnerships between the University and industry players, including leading the development of a strategic partnership between the University of Exeter and the Medicines Discovery Catapult. He also delved further into the multi-sectoral challenges of antimicrobial resistance, particularly the economic challenges with antibiotic R&D, and worked with a range of partners to bring these issues to wider notice.
Jehangir’s attention increasingly turned towards the translational aspects of his work. During his previous stint at Clare Hall, he developed a close collaboration with Prof Sohini Kar-Narayan (Materials Science), combining her laboratory’s expertise in sensors and additive manufacturing with his own in microfluidics. This collaboration has led to the development of a novel force sensing technology, to solve a clinical unmet need in orthopaedic surgery that was identified by their clinical collaborator and Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Mr Vikas Khanduja (Addenbrookes). Jehangir is now leading the commercialisation efforts for this technology, and together with Prof Kar-Narayan, Mr Khanduja and Dr Alex Samoshkin (Office for Translational Research), has spun-out ArtioSense Limited (https://artiosense.co.uk/) as the commercialisation vehicle, to bring this technology out of the lab and into the clinic. ArtioSense was awarded the prestigious Armourers and Brasiers Venture Prize in 2022, and is seeking to raise its seed round to further develop its novel medical device in advance of clinical trials. Jehangir is also involved with another Cambridge spin-out, BioTryp Therapeutics (https://biotryp.com/), that is developing novel treatments for urinary tract infections – this is based on his previous collaboration with the Department of Genetics. Thus his aim is now focused on medical technology and pharma entrepreneurship, to bring these research developments into clinical use.
In his spare time, Jehangir is a pianist, and has performed sonatas by Liszt and Chopin in the Chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge. He is also a keen golfer, and is a member of the newly formed Clare Hall Golf Society.
Select publications
- L. Ives, A. Pace, F. Bor, Q. Jing, T. Wade, J. Cama†, V. Khanduja† and S. Kar-Narayan†, “Conformable and robust microfluidic force sensors to enable precision joint replacement surgery”. Materials & Design, 219, 110747 (2022)
- J. Cama†, K. Al Nahas, M. Fletcher, K. Hammond, M. G. Ryadnov, U. F. Keyser and S. Pagliara†, “An ultrasensitive microfluidic approach reveals correlations between the physico-chemical and biological activity of experimental peptide antibiotics”. Scientific Reports 12, 4005 (2022).
- J. Cama†, R. Leszczynski, P.K. Tang, A. Khalid, V. Lok, C.G. Dowson† and A. Ebata†, “To Push or to Pull? In a post-COVID world, supporting and incentivizing antimicrobial drug development must become a governmental priority.” ACS Infectious Diseases, 7(8), 2029-2042 (2021).
- Q. Jing, A. Pace, L. Ives, A. Husmann, N. Ćatić, V. Khanduja, J. Cama†, S. Kar-Narayan†, “Aerosol-jet printed, conformable microfluidic force sensors”. Cell Reports Physical Science, 2:100386 (2021).
- J. Cama*†, M. Voliotis*, J. Metz, A. Smith, J. Iannucci, U. F. Keyser, K. Tsaneva-Atanasova and S. Pagliara†, “Single-cell microfluidics facilitates the rapid quantification of antibiotic accumulation in Gram-negative bacteria”, Lab on a Chip, 20, 2765-2775 (2020).
- J. Cama*, H. Bajaj*, S. Pagliara, T. Maier, Y. Braun, M. Winterhalter and U. F. Keyser, “Quantification of fluoroquinolone uptake through the outer membrane channel OmpF of Escherichia coli”, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 137(43), 13836-13843 (2015).
- J. Cama*, C. Chimerel*, S. Pagliara, A. Javer and U. F. Keyser, “A label-free microfluidic assay to quantitatively study antibiotic diffusion through lipid membranes”, Lab on a Chip, 14, 2303-2308 (2014).
- H. Gaimster, J. Cama, S. Hernandez-Ainsa, U. F. Keyser and D. K. Summers, “The Indole Pulse: A new perspective on Indole signalling in Escherichia coli.” PLoS ONE, 9(4):e93168 (2014).
Select Awards
- Armourers and Brasiers Venture Prize (for ArtioSense Limited)
- Trinity College Internal Graduate Studentship (2011-14)
- Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Trust Cambridge Scholarship (2009-11)
- Goldman Sachs Global Leader Award (2008). Selected for the Global Leadership Institute in New York in July 2008.
Further links
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jehangir-cama-7a451b16a/
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=mF5LzJQAAAAJ&hl=en
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CamaJehangir
