Professor Arun K. Ghosh

Opening Lecture: Structure-based Design and Synthesis of Conceptually New Classes of Protease Inhibitors Targeting Protein Backbone

Professor Arun Ghosh received his BS degree in Chemistry from the University of Calcutta and obtained a MS degree in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur. He then attended the University of Pittsburgh for his graduate studies, obtaining his PhD degree in chemistry.  He pursued postdoctoral research at Harvard University. He was a research fellow at Merck Research Laboratories, West Point, PA.  In 1994, he joined the chemistry faculty at the University of Illinois, Chicago as an assistant Professor and became Professor of Chemistry in 1998.  In 2005, he moved to Purdue University where he is the Ian P. Rothwell Distinguished Professor at the Department of Chemistry  and also in Department of Medicinal Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology.

Professor Ghosh’s broad research interests include exploration of chemistry and biology of bioactive natural products, development of tools and strategies for protein structure-based molecular design, drug-discovery and development, and exploration of new reactions and their applications. He is the inventor of the frontline therapy, Darunavir for treatment of HIV/AIDS. His laboratory carried out seminal groundwork for BACE inhibitor design and synthesis for treatment of Alzheimers’ Disease.  His work also laid the foundation for X-ray structure-based design of potent drug-like inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro and SARS-COV-2 PLpro for treatment of pathogenic coronaviruses, GRK5, GRK6 inhibitors for treatment of cardiovascular diseases and cancer.  Professor Ghosh received several awards and honors including, IUPAC-Richter Prize in Medicinal Chemistry, ACS Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame, NIH MERIT Award, ACS Arthur C. Cope Senior Scholar Award, ACS Robert Scarborough Excellence in Medicinal Chemistry Award, Herbert Newby McCoy Research Excellence Award, Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Ian P. Rothwell Distinguished Professor

Purdue University, Department of Chemistry,

Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology

Email: akghosh@purdue.edu

http://www.chem.purdue.edu/ghosh/