19. Puja Prasad, Imran Khan, Pijus K. Sasmal, Debasis Koley, Paturu Kondaiah and Akhil R. Chakravarty “Planar triazinium cations from VO2+-assisted ring cyclizations: remarkably efficient thiazole species for nuclear staining, PDT and anaerobic photocleavage of DNA” Chem. Commun. 2011, 47, 3954-3956. (Impact Factor = 6.065)

RESEARCH

Metal-based complexes and nano-bioconjugates as antibacterial agent

Anticancer is one of the leading causes of death in India and worldwide. Our team is working on making new anti-cancer agent (metal complex/nano-conjugates) to overcome the problem related to drug resistance against cancer. We aim to design a theranostic agent that can simultaneously image as well as cure cancer. Image-guided therapy is always preferred as it helps to make surgeries less invasive and more precise. Further, our team will do a mechanistic investigation for the action of

Development of metal-based complexes for tackling antimicrobial resistance

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a global problem that needs urgent attention. AMR can be overcome by synthesizing novel antimicrobial agents or doing rapid antimicrobial susceptibility tests (AST). Our team is designing new molecules mainly Iridum(III) complexes that could specifically target antimicrobials and overcome resistance mechanisms. To date, culture plating is still the most commonly used method to count and identify bacteria. However, it is time-consuming. Therefore, we are also working on developing a rapid method for antimicrobial detection to lower the empirical use of antibiotics and prevent AMR.

Photoactivation of photocaged prodrug in visible/NIR Light

Photoactivatable or photoremovable protecting groups (PPGs) have gained enormous interest in the field of biomedical applications. The photoactivatable prodrug activation strategy is superior to others (e.g. pH, redox, reactive oxygen species, enzymes, temperature etc.) since the drug release can be modulated by simply adjusting the wavelength, intensity, and exposure time of light to attain both spatial and temporal control with high precision. Herein, we are interested in designing a site-selective photoactivatable drug delivery system that provides temporally controlled, on-demand, and dose-dependent release of drug