G. Sridhar Prasad, Ph.D.; Head of Research

Dr. Prasad has been the core member of drug discovery teams that successfully discovered multiple drug candidates that are currently at various stages of preclinical and clinical development, including MK-4965. He was the lead crystallographer and core member of the team that discovered NESINA - A Syrrx and Takeda San Diego's DPP-IV inhibitor Alogliptin, currently being marketed in Japan to treat type II diabetes. He designed, built and implemented fragment based crystallography screening technology platforms at Syrrx (Takeda), Merck and Metabasis. He has co-authored over 45 peer reviewed research articles, holds 6 US and international patents. He serves on the editorial board of Current Protein and Peptide Science (CPPS). Dr. Prasad obtained his Ph.D., from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India and post-doctoral training at University of Minnesota Medical School and the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, where he subsequently grew to the ranks of Assistant Professor.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS AND PATENTS

• G. Sridhar Prasad Nicholas D.P. Cosford, and Sailen Barik: "Plasmodium Hsp90 as an Antimalarial Target" (2011), in Apicomplexan Parasites, Molecular Approaches toward Targeted Drug Development Drug Discovery in Infectious Diseases (Volume 2), Becker Katja and Selzer Paul M. (Editors). Publisher Wiley-Blackwell.
• Tian, F., Dang, Q., Prasad,G.S., Li, W., Bookser, B., Raffaele, N. B. and Erion, M. D. "Novel activators of glucokinase" (2009), WO/2009/023718.
• Su, D. S., Lim, J. J., Prasad, G. S. and Anthony, N. J. "Substituted tetrahydroquinolines as potent allosteric inhibitors of reverse transcriptase and its key mutants" (2009), Bioorg Med Chem Lett. 19(17), 5119-23.
• Tucker, T. J., et. al., Prasad, G. S. Yan, Y.: "Discovery of 3-{5-[(6-Amino-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridine-3-yl)methoxy]-2-chlorophenoxy}-5-chlorobenzonitrile (MK-4965): A Potent, Orally Bioavailable HIV-1 Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor with Improved Potency against Key Mutant Viruses" (2008), J Med Chem, Oct 1, (Epub ahead of print).
• Sparey, T., et. al., Prasad, G. S. Young, M. B.: "The discovery of fused pyrrole carboxylic acids as novel, potent d-amino acid oxidase(DAO) inhibitors"(2008), Bioorg Med Chem Lett. (Epub ahead of print).