Statement and Themes:

The overarching goal of research in our lab at IIT Goa is to discover novel small molecules of biological and other applicative importance. The search for these molecules is based on various research paradigms from a biomimetic hypothesis encompassing natural products, proteins and evolution to sustainable chemical methods. Organic synthesis is used as the predominant enabling tool for achieving these objectives and hence, gets most of the attention in the lab. 

Some of the specific research themes in practice currently are as follows:

• Sustainable Oxidative Coupling of Electron-rich Heterocycles (Chem. Asian. J. 2022, 17(6), e202101369; Chem. Eur. J., 2024, e202302929; RSc. Advances, 2024, 14, 1239-1249; Chem. Eur. J. 2024, e202302929) 

• Novel Reactivity Modes (Tetrahedron 2022, 103, 132553; Org. Chem. Front. 2025)

• Chemical Biology & Medicinal Chemistry (with focus on infectious diseases, motor proteins etc.) (Eur. J. Med. Chem, 2025; ACS Chem Biol., 2024, 19, 2065-2075; J. Med. Chem., 2023, 66, 14411 - 14433; Med. Res. Rev. 2023, 43, 293 - 318; J. Med. Chem. 2022, 65, 3046-3065; Biophysical Journal, 2020,  118, 1279-1291;  J. Med. Chem. 2020, 63, 15308-15332.)

The students (Post-doc, PhD and Masters) joining our lab for research can expect to get trained in various areas of organic synthesis along with ample exposure to multiple allied areas such as small molecule based biology research, basic materials science research (photophysical and electrochemical characterization of new molecules), basic DFT calculations etc. The focus is on developing knowledge at the interface of organic chemistry and other allied branches of science.

Alignment with National and International Initiatives:

We continuously strive to align our research themes and efforts with various national and international initiatives. Currently, our research is aligned with following initiaves:

• UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG-3: Good Health and Wellbeing; SDG-7: Affordable and Clean Energy; SDG-12: Responsible Consumption and Production; SDG-17: Partnerships for the Goals)

• Target 2035 - Towards Medicine for All (A global effort to discover open science, pharmacological modulator(s) for every protein in the human proteome by the year 2035) 

• Anti-Microbial Resistance 

Collaborators (Past and present):

• Dr. Sidharth Chopra (Principal Scientist, CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India)

• Prof. Shobhna Kapoor (Associate Prof., IIT Bombay, India)

• Prof. Shailly Tomar (Prof., Dept. of Biotechnology, IIT Roorkee)

• Dr. Sreenath Balakrishnan (Assistant Professor, School of Mechanical Sciences, IIT Goa)

• Prof. Ritu Aneja (Professor/Associate Dean (Research and Innovation), Uni. of Alabama, Birmingham, USA) 

• Dr. Garima Jindal (Assistant Prof., IISc Bangalore, India)