Dr. Niketa Patel

Niketa A. Patel, Ph.D., FNAI Dr. Niketa A. Patel is a Research Career Scientist at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital and a Professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida. Dr. Patel graduated with a B.Sc. in 1989 and received a M.Sc. in 1991 from the University of Bombay, India. Dr. Patel pursued her doctorate degree in the USA and received her Ph.D. in 1998 from the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA. Following her post-doctoral fellowship at USF, Dr. Patel has set up a robust research laboratory with federally funded grants. Dr. Patel has carved a niche in integrating RNA biology with signaling pathways in biologically relevant systems to elucidate the cause or consequence of metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and obesity. Her lab is a pioneer in characterization and development of human adipose stem cells derived exosomes as therapeutics in traumatic brain injury and dermal wound healing. Dr. Patel developed a lncRNA-targeting small molecule therapeutic in metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases, a forefront in genomic medicine. She has over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters and abstract publications. Dr. Patel holds 13 USPTO awarded patents and has 5 provisional patents as of Nov 2024. She serves extensively on JAH VA and USF research committees. She is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and serves on the executive committee of NAI’s USF Chapter.