Arindam Mukherjee
Professor
Dept: Chemical Sciences (DCS)
E-mail: a.mukherjee [at] iiserkol.ac.in
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The research group's flagship area is design and syntheses of nutrient conjugated and hypoxia active anticancer agents. The group is interested to develop the small molecules that are selective towards cancer cells exploiting the higher metabolic rate of cancer cells. The work encompasses the fight against resistance by making complexes with ligands which are active stand alone inside cells through a different pathway than the metal complex itself. The target variance by change of ligand design generates newer variations using well studied pharmacological motifs. Design includes making pro-drugs that upon metabolism in liver in reducing environment in hypoxia would become more active. NMR, ESI-MS, UV-visible, ITC and other spectroscopic techniques are used for studying solution speciation and binding constants. Pathways of cytotoxicity due to the effect of the compound is investigated by probing the possible targets viz. nucleus, golgi, lysozome, Endoplasmic reticulum or mitochondria along with the relevant downstream pathways. Our interest in such changes comes from the impetus to understand the mechanistic pathway to improve the efficacy and reduce resistance. The target molecules for modification includes nitrogen mustard, nitrosoureas, NSAIDs and tyrosine kinase inhibitors. We have succeeded in the recent past in making compounds that kill cancer stem cells, a small and rare population in almost every cancer causing their relapse. our success includes the design of Ru(II) and Pt(II) compounds that are better than the clinical Pt(II) drugs in resisting sequestration and efflux by proteins having thiol donors (ATP7B). Since these complexes are resistant to thiol binding to extract the metal from the active complexes, thus inhibiting resistance to therapy and efficiently killing cancer cells.
- Ph.D. in chemical sciences (structure and magnetic properties), Indian Institute of Science, 2005, Best thesis award by IISc
- Professor, IISER Kolkata ( - )
- Professor, IISER kolkata (2018 - 2020)
- Associate Professor, IISER Kolkata (2013 - 2016)
- Assistant Professor, IISER Kolkata (2009 - 2013)
- RDF Strategic fellow and investigator, University of Warwick (2008 - 2009)
- Marie Curie Fellow, University of Warwick (2007 - 2008)
- Marie Curie Fellow, University of Edinburgh (2006 - 2007)
- Research Fellow, University of Melbourne (2005 - 2006)
- RDF strategic award from University of Wawick (2008)
- Marie Curie Fellowship from European Commission (2006)
- IRCSET Fellowship from Ireland Council of Science Engeneering and Technology (2006)
- Surendranath Bhattacharyya Medal from University of North Bengal (1999)
- Arindam*, Mukherjee. 2020."Effect of N,N Coordination and Ru(II) Halide Bond in Enhancing Selective Toxicity of a Tyramine-Based Ru(II)-p-Cymene Complex." Inorg. Chem., 59, 6581-6594
- Arindam*, Mukherjee. 2020."Inhibition of 3D colon cancer stem cell spheroids by cytotoxic Ru(II)-p-cymene complexes of mesalazine derivatives. Acharya, Sourav; Ghosh, Subhashis; Maji, Moumita; U P, Ajmal Roshan; Singh, Sandeep*;." Chem. Commun., 56, 5421-5424
- Arindam*, Mukherjee. 2020."Oxamusplatin: A cytotoxic Pt(II) complex of a nitrogen mustard with resistance to thiol based sequestration display enhanced selectivity towards cancer. Maji, Moumita; Karmakar, Subhendu; Ruturaj; Gupta, Arnab;." Dalton Trans, 49, 2547-2558
- Mukherjee, Arindam. 2019."ATP7B Binds Ruthenium(II) p-Cymene Half-Sandwich Complexes: Role of Steric Hindrance and Ru-I Coordination in Rescuing the Sequestration. Purkait, Kallol; Ruturaj; Gupta, Arnab;." Inorg. Chem., 58, 15659-70
- Mukherjee*, Arindam. 2019."Synthesis, Structure, Stability, and Inhibition of Tubulin Polymerization by Ru(II)-p-Cymene Complexes of Trimethoxyaniline-Based Schiff Bases. Acharya, Sourav; Maji, Moumita; Ruturaj; Purkait, Kallol; Gupta, Arnab." Inorg. Chem., 58, 9213-9224