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Medical Chemistry Division

Overview | Missions and goals | Competencies | People | Area of research | Facilities | Current research | Projects
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Overview

The research in medicinal chemistry division includes the design and synthesis of new medicinal agents, development of new concepts for the design of selectively active ligands, improvement of existing drugs by molecular modifications and structural elucidation of biologically active natural products. The major program is aimed at chemistry-biology interface. The main focus of research is to discover novel compounds using rational design approaches based on ligand and structural information derived from clinical compounds to treat infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, cancer, inflammation, obesity, and neurodenerative diseases.
The department has state-of-the art research facilities. The students, who are pursuing their doctoral degree, have opportunity to gain expertise in organic and medicinal chemistry as well as computational chemistry. They also have an opportunity to broaden their knowledge in the area of drug discovery, molecular biology, pharmacology and biochemistry.

Mission and goals
Synthesis of complex carbohydrate based GPIs to study its biological significance as cell surface anchors
Receptor based drug discovery: design and synthesis of novel target based anticancer therapeutics
Medicinal chemistry of  natural product scaffolds (both plant as well as marine-derived) to discover potential candidates for treatment of cancer, inflammation, tuberculosis and neurodegenerative diseases
Total synthesis of complex carbogenic molecules of structural and biological interest.
Development of novel synthetic methodologies
Design, synthesis and conformational studies on peptides, peptide foldamers and peptide based enzyme Inhibitors & conjugates.
Design and synthesis of novel hybrids for skin/beauty care applications.
Screening of natural peptides protein-protein interaction by mass spectrometry.
Competencies
Well equipped laboratory with state-of-the-art facilities.
Expertise in synthesis of carbohydrate based complex molecules.
Expertise in structural chemistry of peptides & proteins.
Total synthesis and structural modification of bio-active natural products for lead discovery.
Protein/peptide identification, sequencing and characterization by MALDI.
People:

Sr. NO Name Expertise E-mail
1. Sandip B. Bharate
Medicinal chemistry/ semisynthetic modifications  of natural products, development of new synthetic methodologies, and molecular modeling studies.
 sbharate[at]iiim[dot]res[dot]in
2. Sanghapal D. Sawant
Organic synthesis, Medicinal Chemistry and Semi-synthetic Modifications of Bioactive Natural Products; Synthetic Method Development
 sdsawant[at]iiim[dot]res[dot]in
3. Naveed A. Qazi Medicinal chemistry, organic synthesis naqazi[at]iiim[dot]res[dot]in
4. Parvinder P. Singh
Total Synthesis & Structural Modification of Natural Products; Carbohydrate Chemistry
 ppsingh[at]iiim[dot]res[dot]in
5. Rajkishore Rai Peptide/Protein Chemistry; Chemical Biology raj[at]iiim[dot]res[dot]in

Area of research
Drug discovery
Chemical biology
Carbohydrate chemistry
Protein/peptide chemistry
Bio-conjugate chemistry
Development of novel synthetic methodologies
Improvement of existing drugs by molecular modifications
Screening of natural peptides by mass spectrometry
Facilities
MALDI TOF/TOF mass spectrometer
High Performance Liquid Chromatography (preparative & analytical)
Freeze Dryer
UV spectrophotometer
Gel electrophoresis system /gel cutter
Icematic
Rotary evaporators
Flash chromatography systems
Deep freezers, refrigerators, refrigerated centrifuges
Chillers and shakers
Microwave synthesizer

Current
Structural modification of bioactive natural products for lead discovery against cancer, diabetes, inflammation, tuberculosis and neurodegenerative diseases.
Total synthesis of bioactive natural products.
Synthesis of complex carbohydrate based GPIs to study its biological relevance as cell surface anchors
Design and synthesis of natural product based isoform selective inhibitors of PI3- kinase.
Design, synthesis and conformational studies of peptides of biological importance
Development of new synthetic methodologies for glycosylation and synthesis of bioactive heterocyclic entities.
Development of novel skin care molecules and melanin repairing agents.
Discovery of P-glycoprotein inducers as potential anti-Alzheimer agents.

Projects

Project Title

Ongoing Projects

  • Nurturing a new Pan-CSIR drug pipe line high intensity preclinical, clinical studies on lead candidates (BSC-0205)

  • Medicinal chemistry for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (BSC-0108)

  • New drug discovery from marine biodiversity and pre-clinical development for cancer and infectious diseases (ITR-0001)

  • Biotechnological intervention for the conservation and utilization of forest resources (GAP-1140)

  • Medicinal chemistry of marine-derived kinase inhibitors for anticancer lead optimization (GAP-1183)

Completed Projects

  • Development of novel target based anticancer therapeutics (CSIR Supra Institutional Project: SIP0027)

  • Development of novel skin care hybrids for cosmeceutical applications (Sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive, NJ-USA).

  • Develop understanding and control of SK-II pitera fractionataion, benchmarking molecular bioactivities, chemical characterization and potential synthetic approaches (Sponsored by Procter & Gamble, Kobe-Japan)