NDSU alumnus recognized for innovative approach to treating metastatic bladder cancer

For Rahul Raj Singh, cancer research is both personal and scientific.

After losing several close family members to cancer, he became determined to understand the disease better, and more specifically, what happens when a healthy cell goes wrong.

That curiosity led him to NDSU, where he earned his Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology. Today, Singh’s research focuses on new ways to treat metastatic bladder cancer, work that recently earned him the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network’s Young Investigator Award, a prestigious honor supporting outstanding early-career scientists and clinical cancer researchers.

“Given that I chose this field in part because I lost family members to cancer, having the bladder cancer community through Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network's Young Investigator Award recognize this work means more to me than any academic milestone could,” Singh said. “It's a reminder that the research isn't happening in the abstract; it's directly connected to patients and families living with this disease right now. That recognition also renews my sense of responsibility to keep pushing this work toward something that can actually reach the clinic.”

Turning scientific questions into new possibilities

As a graduate student at NDSU, Singh was drawn to the flexibility and interdisciplinary nature of the cellular and molecular biology program. Rather than being limited to a single department, students can work across disciplines to find the research that best fits their interests.

“NDSU's cellular and molecular biology program stood out because of how collaborative it was. As a student in the program, I could choose to work in a lab in essentially any department rather than being confined to one, which let me find the exact intersection of biology and disease I cared about,” Singh said. “I was also drawn to the fact that the program gave graduate students the opportunity to teach undergraduate courses, which felt like a rare chance to develop as both a scientist and an educator at the same time.”

Throughout his time at NDSU, Singh worked with Katie Reindl, a professor in biological sciences, whose hypothesis-driven approach to scientific work continues to influence his work.

“She taught me to build a rigorous, testable question before ever touching the bench,” he said. “She approaches every scientific problem with genuine open-mindedness, is remarkably supportive of her trainees taking risks and is someone I always felt comfortable walking into her office to ask even the most basic or half-formed questions.”

Several courses also helped shape Singh’s approach to research, including Biology and Gene Expression taught by John Wilkinson, an associate professor and chair of chemistry and biochemistry; Recombinant DNA Technology taught by Stuart Haring, an associate professor in chemistry and biochemistry; and Critical Thinking taught by Sheela Ramamoorthy, a professor in microbiology.

“Those courses all pushed me to reason rigorously through experimental design rather than just execute protocols,” Singh said.

Targeting cancer at the cellular level

Today, Singh is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Englander Institute of Precision Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, where he is researching a challenge faced by patients with advanced bladder cancer: treatment resistance.

Bladder cancer can become resistant to treatment and spread to other parts of the body. Singh’s research focuses on proteins inside cancer cells that can drive this resistance and have been traditionally difficult to target with conventional drugs.

His approach uses a strategy called targeted protein degradation.

Rather than simply blocking a protein’s activity, targeted protein degradation is designed to harness the cell’s own machinery to eliminate the protein altogether.

“We design molecules that tag the harmful protein and flag it for the cell to destroy entirely, rather than just switching it off. Because the protein is eliminated rather than just inhibited, this approach can potentially get at cancer drivers that other drugs simply can't touch,” he said.

The research could eventually provide a new therapeutic avenue for patients whose cancers no longer respond to standard treatments.

“If this approach continues to hold up as it moves toward clinical development, it could mean more durable responses and fewer patients running out of options after their cancer stops responding to first-line treatment,” Singh said. “Ultimately, my hope is that this work contributes to a future where resistance itself becomes a treatable target, not just dead end.”

Carrying the NDSU experience forward

Singh remains grateful to NDSU and Reindl for the impactful lessons, solid foundation and the freedom to pursue research questions he gained as a student. He encourages current graduate students interested in biomedical research to remain curious, seek out collaborators and be willing to let their data challenge their assumptions.

“Look for every opportunity to present your research, because the more you talk about your work, the more blind spots you uncover. And remember that science is iterative; don't be afraid to change your hypothesis or even your research question when the data tells you to,” he said.