Structure based Drug Discovery Research

Biographical Information

I worked as a Research associate in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at CASE Western Reserve University, Cleveland. My interdisciplinary research work utilizes multiple techniques of cell & molecular biology, biophysics, and structural biology to study biological macromolecules.

I started my career as a hospital pharmacist in dispensing and distributing medicines, and minor surgical treatments including infusion delivery, tissue stitching, surgical dressing, etc. under the legal and ethical guidelines of the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI). This work led to an interest in understanding the pathophysiological basis of diseases, which would form the basic principles in the design and development of novel therapeutics. Thus, I completed my master's (M.Tech-Biotechnology) at HNB Garhwal University (A Central University), where my research training was focused on the Structure-Based Drug Discovery program at Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI-Lucknow) using biochemistry and biophysical approaches, specifically X-ray crystallography in order to study enzyme-substrate interactions.

Subsequently, I was awarded a Ph.D. fellowship to study at Nanyang Technological University, NTU-Singapore. My applied research and collaborative work were aimed at understanding a number of different systems including synthetically designed peptides and engineered proteins using Solution NMR spectroscopy. This work resulted in the understanding of the folding and function of designed membrane proteins. These findings have produced interesting results and opened new avenues for designer membrane proteins. I then moved to Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland and the University of Michigan (UMICH), Ann Arbor, and Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston for my Postdoctoral training to delve further into structure-based functional dynamics of membrane proteins towards the design and development of novel diagnostics/therapeutics. For a short-term work in Chemical Engineering Department, the research was focused on understanding the structural basis of peptide/protein interaction with lipid membranes.

Academic Background

• Visiting Researcher, University of California San Diego, 2022, San Diego, USA 

• Research Associate, CASE Western Reserve University, 2022, Cleveland, USA

• Research Fellow, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, 2019-2020, Boston, USA

• Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Michigan, 2017-2019, Ann Arbor, USA

• Postdoctoral Scholar, CASE Western Reserve University, 2015-2016, Cleveland, USA

• Ph.D. Structural Biology and Biochemistry, Nanyang Technological University, 2014, Singapore

• M. Tech. (Biotechnology), HNB Garhwal University (A Central University), 2008, India

• Bachelor of Pharmacy.  I.K. Gujral Punjab Technical University, 2005, India

• Diploma in Pharmacy. Punjab State Board of Technical Education and Industrial Training, 2001, India