IISER Tirupati

Announcements

IISER Tirupati is notified for exemption u/s 80G(2)(a)(iiif) of the I.T.Act, 1961 IISER Tirupati is notified by the Govt of India for approval u/s 35(1)(ii) of the I.T.Act, 1961 OFFICE MEMORANDUM - GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL FOR STUDENTS Institute Health Advisory Guidelines OFFICE ORDER - Important Advisory on COVID-19 dt 19/03/2020. OFFICE ORDER - Important Advisory on COVID-19 dt 16/03/2020. ICT Initiatives of MHRD & UGC

Dr. Rajesh Viswanathan

Associate Professor

Departments of Chemistry and Biology

Email: rajesh [AT] iisertirupati.ac.in

Phone: +91 877 2500 921

Group Webpage

Research Interests:

Broadly, my research group is interested in chemical biology of natural products and their bioactive derivatives. We are interested specifically in:

Chemo-enzymatic synthesis of alkaloid natural products and their derivatives.
Synthetic biology strategies for accessing novel chemical diversity in alkaloids, peptides and polyketides.
Development of medicinal chemistry platforms for discovery of anti-cancer, anti-virulent and anti-malarial lead compounds.

Educational and Professional Career:

B. Sc. Chemistry, 1994-'97 The New College, University of Madras, Chennai, India.
M. Sc. Chemistry, 1997-'99 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, India. Thesis work with Prof. Javed Iqbal.
Ph. D. in Organic Chemistry of Natural Products, 1999-2005 Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA. Graduate research with Prof. Jeffrey N. Johnston.
Post-Doctoral Research in Chemical Biology, 2005-'08 University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA. Research with Prof. C. Dale Poulter.
Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Case Western Reserve Univ. Cleveland, OH. 2008-'15
Frank Hovorka Assistant Professor of Chemistry, CWRU Cleveland, OH. 2015-'18

Honours and Awards (selected):

2016 – Present: Reviewer for National Science Foundation, CBET Division, Protein Engineering, Biocatalysis and Related Topics.
2017 – Present: National Science Foundation grant awardee. Title: “Biosynthesis of Diketopiperazine Natural Products from Aminoacyl-tRNAs”.
2010 – 2011: Reviewer for American Association for the Advancement of Science and India-US Science and Technology Forum (AAAS-IUSSTF) collaborative proposals.
2012 – 2014: Reviewer: Center for Translational Science Collaborative (CTSC), School of Medicine, CWRU.
2015 – Present: Scientific Oversight Board Member, Small Molecule Drug Discovery Core, CWRU, Cleveland, OH.
2016 – Present: Consultant for Chemical Operations, Ginkgo Bioworks; Boston, MA.
2014: Faculty Excellence Award – Case Western Reserve University.
2008 – 2010: Co-investigator, NIH-National Institute of Aging program project grant. Director for Synthesis and Analytical Chemistry Core.
2003: Lubrizol Foundation Graduate Fellowship^¶, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA. (1 award per year) (^¶established by William Monroe LeSuer, Ph. D. 1948, President and Director of Research, Lubrizol)
2002: Bernard Berk Fellowship^¶ in Organic Chemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA. (1 award per year) (^¶awards a student studying organic chemistry who shows great promise as a chemist)

Publications (selected):

Sarah E. Huff, Md. Faiz Ahmad, Mu Yang, P. Agarwal; John J. Pink; Michael E. Harris; Chris G. Dealwis* and Rajesh Viswanathan* J. Med. Chem. 2018, 61, 666-680.
Intekhab Alam, Md. Faiz Ahmad, Sarah E. Huff, Rajesh Viswanathan, Michael E. Harris, Chris G. Dealwis* et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 2017, 114, 8241-8246.
Elle D. James, Bryan A. Knuckley, Norah Alqahtani, Suheel K. Porwal, Jon. A. Karty, Rajesh Viswanathan* and Amy L. Lane* ACS Synthetic Biology, 2016, 5, 547–553.
Karthikeyan Thandavamurthy, Deepti Sharma, Suheel K. Porwal, Dale Ray, Rajesh Viswanathan* J. Org. Chem. 2014, 79, 10049-10067.
Norah Alqahtani, Suheel K. Porwal, Elle D. James, Dana M. Bis, Jonathan A. Karty, Amy L. Lane and Rajesh Viswanathan* Org. & Biomol. Chem., 2015, 13, 7177–7192.
Viswanathan, R., Mutnick, D., Johnston J. N.* “The first azacyclopentenyl carbinyl radical isomerizations (ACCRI): Independent use of steric and electronic (polarization) effects as gating elements” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 7266-7271.
Viswanathan, R.; Prabhakaran, E. N.; Plotkin, M. A.; Johnston, J. N.* “Free radical-mediated aryl amination and its use in a convergent [3+2] strategy for enantioselective indoline α-amino acid synthesis” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 163-168.

Teaching at IISER Tirupati:

Monsoon (Fall)

CHM 412: Medicinal Chemistry
CHM 212: Chemistry Lab - II

Spring
CHM 422: Advanced Organic Chemistry
CHM 426: Forensic Science

Open Positions

Please check the group website for currently available positions.