Our research program involves development of novel synthetic procedures for small and medium-size heterocyclic organic structures relevant to medicinal research via domino/cascade/tandem pathways under metal/metal free conditions.

Aryne

Arynes are one of the most reactive intermediate in organic chemistry offering numerous applications in organic synthesis. Presence of strained bond in the ring makes aryne highly reactive. In a one pot operation, in situ generated aryne has been employed for the rapid construction of molecular complexity and diversity through the formation of multiple C−C and C−heteroatom bonds in a selective manner. Here at CSIR-CDRI, our research group’s primary focus will be to find novel organic transformation, total synthesis of natural product, and synthesis of small drug like molecule employing reactive aryne intermediate.  

Hypervalent Iodine

Compounds of iodine in higher oxidation states, which are commonly known as  “hypervalent iodine compounds”, have unfold as versatile and environmentally benign reagents for organic chemistry. Structure and reactivity of hypervalent iodine compounds are comparable to the transition metal derivatives. The reactions of hypervalent iodine reagents are usually rationalized as ligand exchange, oxidative addition, reductive elimination, and ligand coupling, in terminology typical of the chemistry of transition metal. Due to environmentally benign and relatively inexpensive element compare with transition metal, our group is very much interested to the synthesis of new iodine(III) reagents with nitrogen ligands, use of newly synthesized iodine(III) compounds as a reagent to organic transformations, and study their catalytic activities.

Medicinal Chemistry

Tuberculosis (TB), one of the world’s major causes of illness and death, is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). According to World Health Organisation estimation (WHO), approximately death of 1.4 million people was reported worldwide in 2015. The spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB and the emergence of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB have been accelerated drug discovery effort in search of novel drug. Although Bedaquiline and Delamanid were approved for the treatment of MDR-TD over a huge gap of over 40 years, both of them have pronounced issues of toxicity. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop new anti-TB drugs to stop the spread of the disease. Hence, the role of our research group would be to improve the synthetic efficiency of APIs of existing drugs and synthesis of active APIs for tuberculosis treatment.