Welcome to the Chemical Biology Website! 

Chemical Biology is a young and vibrant initiative that aims to develop a new research culture where different skill-sets could walk together to enhance our understanding of signaling pathways-based disease biology through an extensive use of highly unique and novel natural product-inspired small molecules in the post-genomic drug discovery arena. 

• News
• Vision and Philosophy
• Faculty
• Contributors to ILS Chemical Biology ChemBank
• Collaborators
• Positions Available   

News:
ILS PhD Program Launched:
See, our recently launched ILS PhD program that aims to provide a common learning platform to students at the interface of chemistry and biology. 

Vision and Philosophy:

Chemical Biology Program aims at developing novel methods leading to high-throughput generation of highly unique natural product inspired chemical tools and through building highly-integrated research models, we extensively evaluate their potential to enhance our current understanding of disease biology.  Through this approach, we strive to create a new culture within the community to undertake the post-genomic drug discovery challenges, i.e.  development of drug discovery programs that are associated with regulation and de-regulation of signaling pathways. 

Significant efforts are ongoing to establish a collective competency-based model that requires a close integration of various scientific platforms as indicated below:     

• High Throughput Chemistry: Natural Product-Inspired, Diversity-Oriented Synthesis
• Medicinal Chemistry
• Computational Chemistry and Biology
• High-throughput Screening (biochemical, cellular and NMR etc)              
• Biophysics

Through an extensive use of these scientific platforms, our research (in-house and through the collaborative network) is then focused on development of small molecules related to:

• Cancer cell signaling
• Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders-based cell signaling
• Intracellular signaling in infectious/neglected diseases  

Faculty:

• Prof. Prabhat Arya
• Prof. Nasreen Z. Ehtesham
• Prof. Javed Iqbal
• Prof. Goverdhan Mehta, FNA, FRS, National Research Professor and Lilly -Jubilant Chair
• Dr. Prasenjit Mitra
• Dr. Sreedhara R. Voleti 

Adjunct Professors and Visiting Scientists:

• Dr. Gopal Kundu, NCCS Pune, Adjunct Professor
• Dr. Jeyanthy Eswaran, SGC, University of Oxford, Visiting Scientist 

Contributors to ILS Chemical Biology ChemBank :

If you are interested to contribute to ILS Chemical Biology Small Molecule Collection to explore the value of your novel compounds through our network of biomedical community in a not-for-profit setting, we will be pleased to hear from you.  Your compounds will be subjected to a wide variety of several highly unique enzymatic and cell-based assays.  Following the first level screen, we will also work with your team to develop the next stage plans with your interesting small molecules that would require bringing medicinal chemistry and structural and computational biology close to your project.  Our IP office will also be very helpful in working to develop a roadmap for the IP pathway, should a need arise.

Please contact us:
Rajamohan Poondra, PhD                    
Institute of Life Sciences
University of Hyderabad Campus
Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500046
E-mail:  rajamohanreddyp@ilsresearch.org 

Collaborators:

• David Andrews, Biochemistry, McMaster Univ (Bcl-2 Family)
• Moulay Jamali, Lady Davis Institute, McGill University (FAK)
• David Kaplan, Hospital for sick children, Toronto (Neuroblastoma Tumor-initiating Cells)
• Michel Tremblay, Biochemistry, McGill Univ (Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases)
• Paul Workman, UK Cancer Center (Heat Shock Protein 90)
• Chemical Biology Program, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT
• Steve Haggarty, MGH/Broad Institute (Chemical Neurobiology)   

 
Note: If you are interested to access the ILS Chemical Biology Small Molecule Collection to explore its potential in your high-throughput screening assays, we would like to hear from you along with the details of your screening program and your long-term research objectives. If your request is approved by our screening selection committee, we will then make our novel compounds available to your group. To obtain further information on how to access our small molecule collection, 

Positions Available :
Chemical Biology Program is looking for several bright and talented people to join our young and dynamic team to contribute to develop a collective competency-based model, in addition to have fun working with us. 
The current openings are at several levels, such as:

• ILS Investigators
• Post-doctoral Fellows
• Graduate Students
• Research Trainees (with MSc)
• Undergraduate Students
• Short and Long Term Visitors  

In particular, we are looking for people with leadership qualities to establish technology platforms in:

• High-throughput Protein X Ray
• High-throughput Protein NMR
• Biophysics areas, such as Surface Plasmon Resonance etc

If you are interested in seeking further information about these positions, please contact:

Prabhat Arya
Professor and Leader, Chemical Biology Program
Dean, Academic Affairs
Institute of Life Sciences (An Associate Institute of University of Hyderabad)
University of Hyderabad Campus
Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500046, India
tel: (int code) (040) 6657 1513
e mail: prabhata@ilsresearch.org
http://www.ilsresearch.org