Rachita K. Sumbria
•Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Chapman University
•Associate Project Scientist, Department of Neurology, University of California, Irvine
Biography
Rachita K. Sumbria, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Chapman University School of Pharmacy and Associate Project Scientist in the Department of Neurology at the University of California, Irvine. Sumbria received a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. Her research focuses on developing brain-penetrating biologic therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease and investigating the mechanisms underlying cerebral microbleeds.
Sumbria has served as principal investigator on multiple National Institutes of Health grants, including three R01 awards from the National Institute on Aging focused on brain-penetrating transferrin receptor antibody fusion proteins for Alzheimer's disease and liver-brain axis in Alzheimer's disease. She has also received funding from the Alzheimer's Association and the Joseph H. Stahlberg Foundation. Her laboratory has characterized brain-penetrating analogs of erythropoietin and TNF-alpha inhibitors that cross the blood-brain barrier via transferrin receptor-mediated transcytosis. Additionally, her work has established mouse models to study cerebral microbleeds and investigated the role of brain endothelial erythrophagocytosis in their pathogenesis.
Sumbria served as a standing member of the NIH Drug Discovery, Molecular Pharmacology Study Section and is a member of the editorial boards of Frontiers in Drug Delivery and the Journal of Drug Targeting. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles with over 2,000 citations and has mentored numerous doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, and undergraduate researchers. Sumbria has received the Women of Distinction Award and the Graduate Teacher of the Year Award from Chapman University.
Return to topEducation
- Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, 2010
- B.Tech in Pharmaceuticals & Fine Chemicals, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India, 2005
Distinctions
- Graduate Teacher of the Year, School of Pharmacy, Chapman University, 2025
- Valerie Scudder Award, Chapman University, 2025
- Unit Excellence Award, School of Pharmacy, Chapman University, 2025
- Paper of the Year Award, Chapman University, Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2024
- Graduate Teacher of the Year, School of Pharmacy, Chapman University, 2024
- Women of Distinction Award, Chapman University, 2024
- Excellence in Research Award, Keck Graduate Institute, 2020
- Associate Faculty Member, F1000Prime, 2014
- 1st position, Poster Competition, UCLA Department of Medicine Research Day, 2012
- The Barriers of the CNS Gordon-Kenan Research Seminar Travelship, 2010
- 3rd position, Poster Competition, Ninth Annual Research Day, Amarillo, 2010
Areas of Expertise
- Neurodegenerative Disease Therapeutics
- Blood-Brain Barrier Permeability
- Transferrin Receptor Antibody Engineering
- Cerebral Microhemorrhage Pathogenesis
- Erythropoietin Fusion Proteins
- Hepatic Amyloid Metabolism
- Neuroinflammation Modulation
Recent Publications
- Chang R, Chandrashekar DV, Roules CG, Jagadeesan N, Iwasaki E, Oyegbesan A, Davtyan H, Sumbria RK, “Longitudinal pharmacokinetic and safety studies of an antibody-erythropoietin fusion protein for Alzheimer's disease” (opens in new tab), International Journal of Pharmaceutics: X, vol. 10, pp. 100459, 2025.
- Duche AH, Tan O, Baskys A, Sumbria RK, Roosan MR, “Predictive gene expression signatures for Alzheimer's disease using post-mortem brain tissue” (opens in new tab), Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, vol. 17, pp. 1591946, 2025.
- Chang RT, Fisher MJ, Sumbria RK, “Brain endothelial cells as phagocytes: mechanisms and implications” (opens in new tab), Fluids and Barriers of the CNS, vol. 22, pp. 30, 2025.
- Chandrashekar D, Jagadeesan N, Abdullah T, Chang R, Yang Y, Han D, Sumbria RK, “Effect of chronic alcohol feeding using the Lieber-DeCarli diet on Alzheimer's disease pathology in Tg2576 mice” (opens in new tab), Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, vol. 17, 2025.
- Chandrashekar DV, Roules GC, Jagadeesan N, Panchal UR, Oyegbesan A, Imiruaye OE, Zhang H, Garcia J, Kaur K, Win S, Than TA, Kaplowitz N, Roosan M, Han D, Sumbria RK, “Hepatic LRP-1 plays an important role in amyloidosis in Alzheimer's disease mice: Potential role in chronic heavy alcohol feeding” (opens in new tab), Neurobiology of Disease, vol. 199, 2024.
- Jagadeesan N, Roules C, Chandrashekar DV, Yang J, Kolluru S, Sumbria RK, “Modulation of hippocampal protein expression by a brain penetrant biologic TNF-α inhibitor in the 3xTg Alzheimer's disease mice” (opens in new tab), Journal of Translational Medicine, vol. 22, pp. 291, 2024.
- Zhang H, Sumbria RK, Chang R, Sun J, Cribbs DH, Holmes TC, Fisher MJ, Xu X, “Erythrocyte–brain endothelial interactions induce microglial responses and cerebral microhemorrhages in vivo” (opens in new tab), Journal of Neuroinflammation, vol. 20, pp. 265, 2023.
- Chandrashekar DV, Steinberg RA, Han D, Sumbria RK, “Alcohol as a Modifiable Risk Factor for Alzheimer's Disease — Evidence from Experimental Studies” (opens in new tab), International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 24, pp. 9492, 2023.
- Yang J, Ou W, Jagadeesan N, Simanauskaite J, Sun J, Castellanos D, Cribbs DH, Sumbria RK, “The Effects of a Blood–Brain Barrier Penetrating Erythropoietin in a Mouse Model of Tauopathy” (opens in new tab), Pharmaceuticals, vol. 16, pp. 558, 2023.
- Ou W, Ohno Y, Yang J, Chandrashekar DV, Abdullah T, Sun J, Murphy R, Roules C, Jagadeesan N, Cribbs DH, Sumbria RK, “Efficacy and Safety of a Brain-Penetrant Biologic TNF-α Inhibitor in Aged APP/PS1 Mice” (opens in new tab), Pharmaceutics, vol. 14, no. 10, pp. 2200, 2022.
- Sun J, Ou W, Hill PA, Han D, Fisher MJ, Sumbria RK, “Comparative studies between the murine immortalized brain endothelial cell line (bEnd.3) and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived human brain endothelial cells for paracellular transport” (opens in new tab), PLOS One, vol. 17, no. 5, pp. e0268860, 2022.
- Ohno Y, Murphy R, Choi M, Ou W, Sumbria RK, “Full- versus Sub-Regional Quantification of Amyloid-Beta Load on Mouse Brain Sections” (opens in new tab), Journal of Visualized Experiments, no. 183, pp. e63669, 2022.
- Yang J, Sumbria RK, “The concentration of brain homogenates with the Amicon Ultra Centrifugal filters” (opens in new tab), MethodsX, vol. 8, pp. 101584, 2021.
- Sun J, Vyas P, Mann S, Paganini-Hill A, Nunes AC, Lau WL, Cribbs DH, Fisher MJ, Sumbria RK, “Insights into the mechanisms of brain endothelial erythrophagocytosis” (opens in new tab), Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, vol. 9, pp. 672009, 2021.
Most Cited Publications
- Chang R, Knox J, Chang J, Derbedrossian A, Vasilevko V, Cribbs D, Boado RJ, Pardridge WM, Sumbria RK, “Blood-Brain Barrier Penetrating Biologic TNF-α Inhibitor for Alzheimer's Disease” (opens in new tab), Molecular Pharmaceutics, vol. 14, no. 7, pp. 2340-2349, 2017.
- Sumbria RK, Boado RJ, Pardridge WM, “Brain protection from stroke with intravenous TNFα decoy receptor-Trojan horse fusion protein” (opens in new tab), Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, vol. 32, no. 10, pp. 1933-8, 2012.
- Sumbria RK, Grigoryan MM, Vasilevko V, Krasieva TB, Scadeng M, Dvornikova AK, Paganini-Hill A, Kim R, Cribbs DH, Fisher MJ, “A murine model of inflammation-induced cerebral microbleeds” (opens in new tab), Journal of Neuroinflammation, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 218, 2016.
- Ou W, Yang J, Simanauskaite JM, Choi M, Castellanos DM, Chang R, Sun J, Jagadeesan N, Parfitt KD, Cribbs DH, Sumbria RK, “Biologic TNF-α inhibitors reduce microgliosis, neuronal loss, and tau phosphorylation in a transgenic mouse model of tauopathy” (opens in new tab), Journal of Neuroinflammation, vol. 18, pp. 312, 2021.
- Boado RJ, Hui EK, Lu JZ, Sumbria RK, Pardridge WM, “Blood-brain barrier molecular trojan horse enables imaging of brain uptake of radioiodinated recombinant protein in the rhesus monkey” (opens in new tab), Bioconjugate Chemistry, vol. 24, no. 10, pp. 1741-9, 2013.
- Sumbria RK, Hui EK, Lu JZ, Boado RJ, Pardridge WM, “Disaggregation of amyloid plaque in brain of Alzheimer's disease transgenic mice with daily subcutaneous administration of a tetravalent bispecific antibody that targets the transferrin receptor and the Abeta amyloid peptide” (opens in new tab), Molecular Pharmaceutics, vol. 10, no. 9, pp. 3507-13, 2013.
- Boado RJ, Lu JZ, Hui EK, Sumbria RK, Pardridge WM, “Pharmacokinetics and brain uptake in the rhesus monkey of a fusion protein of arylsulfatase a and a monoclonal antibody against the human insulin receptor” (opens in new tab), Biotechnology and Bioengineering, vol. 110, no. 5, pp. 1456-65, 2013.
- Zhou QH, Sumbria R, Hui EK, Lu JZ, Boado RJ, Pardridge WM, “Neuroprotection with a brain-penetrating biologic tumor necrosis factor inhibitor” (opens in new tab), Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, vol. 339, no. 2, pp. 618-23, 2011.
- Mdzinarishvili A, Sumbria R, Lang D, Klein J, “Ginkgo extract EGb761 confers neuroprotection by reduction of glutamate release in ischemic brain” (opens in new tab), Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 94-102, 2012.
- Sun J, Martin JM, Vanderpoel V, Sumbria RK, “The Promises and Challenges of Erythropoietin for Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease” (opens in new tab), Neuromolecular Medicine, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 12-24, 2019.
Contact Information
Email: rsumbria@uci.edu
Phone: (714) 456-6875
Address: Shanbrom Hall, Rm. 121
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Last updated on 5/28/2026.