Arun Ghosh Selected to Receive 2008 Robert M. Scarborough Memorial Award

Arun Ghosh, professor of chemistry and medicinal chemistry at Purdue University has been selected as the recipient of the 2008 Robert M. Scarborough Memorial Award.  This award, endowed by Portola Pharmaceuticals, and conferred by the Division of Medicinal Chemistry of the American Chemical Society recognizes scientists under the age of 50 at the time of nomination.   The awardee must have documented success in the discovery of pharmaceutical entities and/or a substantial body of significant research contributions in medicinal chemistry. Candidates should have a significant record of productivity as measured by the number and quality of scientific publications and issued patents.  Nominees are expected to have demonstrated creativity and insight in medicinal chemistry and/or biology and emply pragmatic, empirical problem solving skills.  Professor Ghosh earned his Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh and completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard University.  He began his academic career at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he rose to the rank of professor.  In 2005, he moved to his current position at Purdue University.

Professor Ghosh was cited for his contributions to structure-based design of HIV protease inhibitors, where he introduced a natural product derivative as a key feature of darunavir (Prestiza®), a compound recently approved in 2006 treatment of HIV infection resistant to first generation protease inhibitors.  This modification contributed to the ability of the compound to treat HIV-1 that has developed resistance to other protease inhibitors.  More recently, Dr. Ghosh has made seminal contributions to the structure-based design of CTS-21166, a compound in clinical development for the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease that inhibits a key enzyme r