Prof. Sankar K. Guchhait, FRSC

Professor and Associate Editor of RSC Medicinal Chemistry Journal

Professional Experience

• 2017 - Present: Professor, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, NIPER, Mohali.

• 2012 - 2017: Associate Professor, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, NIPER, Mohali.

• 2007 - 2012: Assistant Professor, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, NIPER, Mohali

Post-doctoral and doctoral Research Experience, Education

• 2005-2006:, University of California, Riverside, USA; with Professor Michael C. Pirrung

•  2004-2005: University of Illinois at Chicago, USA; with Professor Gabriel Fenteany

•  2002-2004: University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA; with Professor George W. Kabalka

•  1996-2001: Ph.D.; Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata; under supervision of Professor Brindaban C. Ranu

•  1994-1996: MSc in Chemistry (Specialization in Organic Chemistry), University of Calcutta

•  1991-1994: BSc in Chemistry, University of Calcutta

Current Research Area

Synthetic Organic Medicinal Chemistry

• Anticancer Drug Discovery: Targets - Kinases (PI3K-AKT-mTOR, BRAF, KRAS, VEGFR, and their cross-talks), Ferroptosis, Apoptosis, Angiogenesis, tumor vascular normalization, Immunotherapy (ICI TME, and TMB) especially for cold tumor cases in Indian patients; DNA topoisomerase IIα, Microtubule-dynamics; Cancers - Pancreatic, Breast, Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), Oral and Gastrointestinal malignancies.

• Antibacterial Drug Discovery: Design and synthesis of heterocyclic compounds as target-specific antibacterial agents.

• Creating New Therapeutics: Molecular engineering of drugs and clinical trial agents; Exploration of patentable bioactive chemotypes, Preclinical agents.

• Medicinal Chemistry Strategies: Network-linked polypharmacology; Natural product-inspired, Scaffold-hopping, and Choice-based change approaches.

• Medicinal Chemistry Exploration: Identification of target-specific unique pharmacophore motifs; Structural modulations linked to pharmacodynamics, drug-likeness and pharmacokinetic-relevant physicochemical properties.

• Synthesis: Discovery of molecular-diversity feasible routes for synthesis of design-focused target-specific inhibitors, natural product-based compounds (structural elaborated, simplified, inspired, and scaffold-hopped analogs).

• Organic Chemistry and New Methods: Construction of pharmaceutically privileged heterocyclic molecular skeletons, C-H bond functionalization, DAC chemistry, Ylide chemistry, Synthon concept, Isocyanide-based reactions, Catalysis, Green chemistry.

Awards and Recognition

• Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC)

• Associate Editor, RSC Medicinal Chemistry Journal

•  RSC Medicinal Chemistry Editorial Board meeting at Burlington House, London, UK on 3rd June 2024.

• Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) Bronze Medal - 2022

• Indian Chemical Society - Professor D. Nasipuri Memorial Award - 2015

• Expert Panel reviewer for CSIR-FIRST Scheme, CSIR-HRDG-EMR-II Scheme

• Expert Panel Member for DBT- Biotechnology Career Advancement and Re-Orientation

Programme (BioCARe), proposals submitted in the area of Compounds of Medicinal Utility

• Selected for ppt-presentation-evaluation stage for DST-SwarnaJayanti Fellowship, Year-2013.

• Work published in J. Med. Chem. 2011, 54, 5013-5030 was recognized as “highly cited article”

(The American Chemical Society appreciated with a certificate)

• Work published in ACS Med. Chem. Lett., 2015, 6, 481-485 was highlighted by featuring it as a

cover art image in one of the issues (April, 2015) of the ACS Med. Chem. Lett.

• Work (J. Org. Chem. 2017, 82, 2745−2752) was introduced in Synfacts as a highlight article.

• Senior Research Fellowship (CSIR), Govt. of India, 1998-2000

• Junior Research Fellowship (CSIR), Govt. of India, 1996-1998

• Qualified National Eligibility Test (NET), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for

Lectureship and Fellowship, Govt. of India, 1995

• Qualified Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) for Fellowship, Govt. of India, 1996