Medicinal Chemistry of Neglected and Tropical Diseases

Dr. Venkatesan Jayaprakash graduated (B. Pharmacy) from Madras Medical College, Madras in Pharmaceutical Sciences. He did his post graduation (M. Pharmacy) in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. He received his Ph.D. from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra. Since 2004, he is working as a faculty member in Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra. He is medicinal chemist working in the area of drug design and development against therapeutically validated targets. His current research interest is on developing new chemical entities for the treatment of Tuberculosis (Mycobactin synthetase inhibitors), Viral infections (protease and methyltransferase inhibitors), Cancer (CYP-1A & 1B and Cdk-4 inhibitors) and Depression (MAO inhibitors). Dr. Daniele Castagnolo is Lecturer of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Science at King’s College London. Dr. Castagnolo’s research interests range widely from organic synthetic chemistry to medicinal chemistry and are mainly focused on the design and discovery of bioactive molecules active against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, drug-resistant Gram+/- bacteria and viruses. In addition, Dr. Castagnolo’s research group is interested in the development of novel biocatalytic and chemoenzymatic methods for the manufacturing of druglike compounds. Prof. Yusuf Özkay works in the Anadolu University, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Eskişehir-Turkey. Synthesis and biological evaluation of new enzyme inhibitors, central nervous system related compounds, anticancer, and antimicrobial agents constitute his main research areas. He has more than 50 articles in the journals covered by Science Citation Index, over 100 presentations in the international congresses, and more than 500 citations made to the works of him.