Dr. Amit Sharma
Amit Sharma, PhD, is an Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator at the SENS Research Foundation — now part of the Lifespan Research Institute — where he heads the Sharma Lab and leads its Senescence Immunology Research Group.
A cell biologist and immunologist, Amit studies how aging reshapes the immune system and how the body’s innate defenses can be engineered to recognize and remove the senescent cells that accumulate with age and drive chronic, age-related disease. His work bridges fundamental senescence biology and translational therapeutics, combining systems biology, immunology, and pharmacology to develop next-generation senolytics, senomorphics, and cell-based interventions aimed at extending human healthspan.
Amit’s group focuses on natural killer (NK) cells, the innate immune cells chiefly responsible for the surveillance and clearance of senescent cells. His research examines why NK-cell function declines with age, allowing senescent cells to evade immune clearance and accumulate, and how that decline might be reversed or augmented.
In a widely read study, his team established an improved protocol to enrich primary human NK cells from peripheral blood and demonstrated their highly selective killing of senescent cells in culture while sparing healthy cells. Read Enhanced co-culture and enrichment of human natural killer cells for the selective clearance of senescent cells.
Building on this foundation, Amit leads ApoptoSENS, a program developing Chimeric Antigen Receptor Natural Killer (CAR-NK) cells engineered to eliminate senescent cells precisely and safely in vivo. The project — funded with $253,000 from VitaDAO and initiated in 2022, with its intellectual property structured as an IP-NFT through Molecule — set out to identify senescence-specific cell-surface markers, raise monoclonal antibodies against them, and build CAR-NK cells that clear senescent cells while leaving healthy tissue untouched.
That effort produced a notable result: the finding that Lysosomal-Associated Membrane Protein 1 (LAMP1) becomes aberrantly displayed on the surface of senescent cells, making it a membrane-specific biomarker of senescence across aging tissues and in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
His team validated selective LAMP1 upregulation in human and mouse cells and applied a dual antibody-drug conjugate strategy to eliminate LAMP1-positive senescent cells. Read Cell-Surface LAMP1 is a Senescence Marker in Aging and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis and Using a Surface Biomarker to Target Senescent Cells.
His lab continues to map the molecular liabilities of senescent cells and the signals that spread senescence from cell to cell, including recent work on the alarmin protein HMGB1 as a driver of paracrine senescence. Read Researchers Identify a Key Senescence-Spreading Factor.
Amit earned his Master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences from Delhi University in India and completed his PhD in Biotechnology at the University of Pune in 2009, with doctoral research demonstrating how microRNAs regulate the cytokines involved in allergic inflammation in mouse models.
He then pursued postdoctoral research at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, California, working with Judith Campisi and Pankaj Kapahi to investigate how the DNA-damage response and genotoxic stress drive cellular senescence in invertebrate and mammalian models. In 2020, he joined the SENS Research Foundation as Group Lead of its Senescence Immunology group, and he continues to lead the program following the Foundation’s 2024 merger with Lifespan.io to form the Lifespan Research Institute.
In 2020, Amit and Judith Campisi of the Buck Institute were named winners in the National Academy of Medicine’s Healthy Longevity Global Competition for their work on the age-dependent decline in NK-cell immunosurveillance of senescent cells. He also concluded a four-year term as President of the International Cell Senescence Association (ICSA), the global community of researchers advancing the study of cellular senescence.
Amit is a frequent speaker on senescence, immunotherapy, and the biology of aging. Watch Amit Sharma, PhD – Ending Aging Forum 2022,Ask Me Anything about ApoptoSENS – with Dr. Amit Sharma and Michael Rae, and Longevity & Aging Series (S1, E5): Dr. Amit Sharma.
Visit his LinkedIn profile, Google Scholar page, ResearchGate profile, and SciProfiles page.