Sumana Ghosh, PhD
An achievement-oriented professional with experience in R&D including new drug discovery, medicinal chemistry and patent drafting. Actively involved in various antimicrobial and oncology projects starting from target selection to hit identification, hit to lead development, preclinical till clinical stage.
Skills
About
I am currently leading medicinal chemistry team of an oncology company based in USA (San Francisco) and director of medicinal chemistry in a drug discovery company based in India. I am leading many oncology projects starting from target selection to hit identification using generative chemistry and AI model. Our proprietary platform delivers high success rate (50+%) in obtaining hit molecules from commercial library followed by developing lead molecule with excellent bioavailability and PK properties. Our customised platform for each project deliver potent and selective molecule with high druggable characteristics. The platform offers minimum number of molecules that need to be synthesised unlike SAR studies. The turn over time from hit identification to lead optimisation is 1-1.5 year depending on target. We are keen on collaborating with university and biotech company for a serious drug discovery projects and ensure high success rate. In addition to oncology I have ten years’ experience in designing and synthesising new antimicrobial agents against recalcitrant fungus and bacteria. we have published six global patent applications and inventor of 15 granted patents.
Work experience
Head of Early Drug Discovery
• Involved in developing advanced chemistry and design strategies of different class of New Chemical Entities (NCEs) against recalcitrant fungal and bacterial infection. Leading a group of five people in early discovery and development project including design, synthesis and pre-formulation while collaborating with cross-functional departments.
• Involved in developing innovative platform technologies and various drug delivery techniques for NCE candidates like topical emulsion, hydrogel, polymer encapsulated NP, bone cement and others.
• Substantially involved in patent analysis by creating various search strategies and preparation of IP opinions on patentability.
Head of New Product Innovation (Drug Discovery)
• Target selection and biomarker identification for developing precision therapy against various cancer.
• Disordered protein structure prediction and development of small inhibitor molecules based on proprietary platform.
• Biophysico-chemical characterisation of ligand-protein interaction. Lead molecule prediction by satisfying druggable properties using proprietary platform.
Director (Medicinal Chemistry)
1. Target selection based on novelty and biological significance2. Executing drug discovery project starting from in silico design of new structural scaffolds, AI platform to predict ADME and toxicity profile, Hit identification, Hit to Lead optimisation till pre-clinical development.3. IP analysis (Prior art and novelty analysis)4. Strategic planning of the projects
