Skip to main content

Trustees approve the appointment of Arun Ghosh as Distinguished Professor

2009-06-01

ll
Arun Ghosh

The trustees approved the appointments of Arun Ghosh as distinguished professor of chemistry and medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology.

Ghosh, who has been at Purdue since 2005, is noted for his accomplishments in the areas of drug design, chemical synthesis of natural products, and development of new reactions and structure-based design of enzyme inhibitors. He advanced the theory of "backbone binding" to combat drug resistance. This conceptual work culminated in the development of Darunavir, the first FDA approved treatment for drug-resistant HIV/AIDS in 2006.

His work on memapsin 2 inhibitors resulted in the first clinical candidate for a disease-modifying treatment for Alzheimer's disease in 2007. His research group also is involved in the design of molecular therapeutics for emerging pathogens, such as SARS, and novel targets for cancer treatment.