School of Pharmacy

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Umesh R. Desai, Ph.D.
Chair
Professor
Department of Medicinal Chemistry
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  •   Virginia Biotechnology Research Park, Suite 212
  • School of Pharmacy - Dept of Medicinal Chemistry
    BioTech One, Suite 205
    800 E. Leigh St.
    Box 980540
     Richmond, VA 23298-0540
  •  (804) 828-7575
    (804) 827-3664
  •  urdesai@vcu.edu

Area of Focus

  • Heparin Mimetics - Design, Discovery and Development
  • Allosteric Modulators of Coagulation Factors, Viral Glycoproteins and Cell Surface Growth Factor Receptors
  • Computational Design of 'High-Specificity' Glycosaminoglycan Sequences
  • Anti-Thrombotic Agents
  • Anti-Cancer Stem Cell Agents

Education

  • B.S., Chemistry (M. S. University of Baroda, India, 1983)
  • M.S., Organic Chemistry (Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay, 1985)
  • Ph.D., Organic Chemistry (Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay, 1991)

Post-Graduate Training

  • Fellowship - Postdoctoral Training (University of Iowa – Iowa City, 1993)
  • Fellowship - Postdoctoral Trainint (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 1994)

Professional Experience

  • (2018 - Present) Chairman, Department of Medicinal Chemistry,
  • (2009 - 2021) Director, Institute for Structural Biology, Drug Discovery and Development
  • (2007 - Present) Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • (2004 - 2007) Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • (1998 - 2004) Assistant Profesor of Medicinal Chemsitry, Virginia Commonwealth University

Publications

PubMed Search
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Books/Book Chapters

  • ‘Glycosaminoglycans – Chemistry and Biology’, a volume of Methods in Molecular Biology, Springer, NY (2014). Editor: Kuberan Balagurunathan, Hiroshi Nakato and Umesh R. Desai

Patents

  • Desai, U. R.; Patel, B. B.; Patel, N. J.; Karuturi, R. Sulfated and unsulfated flavonoid oligomers as cancer therapeutics. US Patent 9,850,221 B2. Priority date: Nov. 8, 2013; Issued on Dec. 26, 2017.
  • Desai, U. R.; Thakkar, J. N.; Mehta, A. Y. Sulfated beta-O4 low molecular weight lignins. US Patent 9,777,123 B2. Priority date: Nov. 12, 2012; Issued on Oct. 3, 2017.
  • Desai, U. R.; Al-Horani, R. A.; Karuturi, R. Allosteric modulators of factor XIa as anticoagulant agents. US Patent 9,758,459 B2. Priority date: Nov. 12, 2012; Issued on Sept 12, 2017.
  • Desai, U. R.; King, J. T. Method for finger-printing heparins. United States Patent, US 8,262,881 issued September 11, 2012.
  • Desai, U. R.; Henry, B. L.; Liang, A.; Thakkar, J. N.; Mangrum, J. B.; Torres Filho, I.; Spiess, B. D.; Saluja, B.; Sakagami, M. Cinnamic acid-based oligomers and uses thereof – Divisional II Application. United States Patent Application Publication, US 8,993,620 issued March 31, 2015.

Recent Publications

  • Abdelfadiel, E. I.; Gunta, R.; Villuri, B. K.; Afosah, D. K.; Sankaranarayanan, NV.; Desai, U. R.* Designing smaller, synthetic, functional mimetics of sulfated glycosaminoglycans as allosteric modulators of coagulation factors. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2023, 66, 4503-4531. (PMID: 37001055)
  • Ponnuraj, N.; Akbar, H.; Arrington, J. V.; Spatz, S. J.; Nagarajan, B.; Desai, U. R.; Jarosinski, K. W.* he alphaherpesvirus conserved pUS10 is important for natural infection and its expression is regulated by the conserved Herpesviridae protein kinase (CHPK). PLoS Pathogens 2023, 19, e1010959. (PMID: 36749787)
  • Morla, S.; Ravikumar, O.; O’Hara, C. P.; Boothello, R.; Vera, A.; Abdelfadiel, E. I.; Fayyad, R.; Afosah, D. K.; Sharon, C.; Fernandez, L.; Shah, S. A.; Patel, B. B.;* Desai, U. R.* Designing synthetic, sulfated glycosaminoglycan mimetics that are orally bioavailable and exhibiting in vivo anti-cancer activity. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2023, 66, 1321-1338. (PMID: 36634271)
  • Boothello, R. S.; Sankaranarayanan, NV.; Sistla, J. C.; Nagarajan, B.; Sharon, C.; Chittum, J. E.; Niyaz, R. Y.; Roy, S.; Nandi, A.; O’Hara, C. P.; Navaz Gangji, R.; Afosah, D. K.; Ongolu, R.; Patel, B. B.;* Desai, U. R.* Glycan modulation of insulin-like growth factor–1 receptor. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2022, 61, e202211320. (PMID: 36205924)
  • Holmes, S. G.; Nagarajan, B.; Desai, U. R.* 3-O-sulfation induces sequence-specific compact topologies in heparan sulfate that encode a dynamic sulfation code. Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal 2022, 20, 3884-3898. (PMID: 35891779)
  • Nagarajan, B.; Holmes, S. G.; Sankaranarayanan, NV.; Desai, U. R.* Molecular dynamics simulations to understand glycosaminoglycan interactions in the free and protein-bound states. Current Opinion in Structural Biology 2022, 74, 102356. (PMID: 35306321)
  • Nagarajan, B.;* Sankaranarayanan, NV.; Desai, U. R.* In-depth molecular dynamics study of all possible chondroitin sulfate disaccharides reveals key insight into structural heterogeneity and dynamism. Biomolecules 2022, 12, 00077.
  • Chittum, J. E.; Sankaranarayanan, NV.; O’Hara, C. P.; Desai, U. R.* On the selectivity of heparan sulfate recognition by SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein. ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2021, 12, 1710–1717. (PMID: 34786180)
  • Sankaranarayanan, NV.; Nagarajan, B.; Desai, U. R.* Combinatorial virtual library screening study of transforming growth factor-ß2 –chondroitin sulfate system. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2021, 22, 7542.
  • Kalita, M.; Chua, J. S.; Boothello, R. S.; Joice, A.; Antelope, O.; Roy, A.; Pon Velayutham, A.; Saijoh, Y.; Desai, U. R.;* Balagurunathan, K.* Visualizing antithrombin-binding 3-O-sulfated heparan sulfate motifs on cell surfaces. Chemical Communications 2020, 56, 14423–14426. (PMID: 33146178)
  • Tiwari, V.;* Beer, J. C.; Sankaranarayanan, NV.; Swanson-Mungerson, M. Desai, U. R.* Discovering small molecule therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2. Drug Discovery Today 2020, 25, 1535–1544. (PMID: 32574699)
  • Rajarathnam, K.;* Desai, U. R. Structural insights into how proteoglycans determine chemokine function: Progress and challenges. Frontiers in Immunology 2020, 11, 660. (PMID: 32391006)
  • Nagarajan, B.;* Sankaranarayanan, NV.; Desai, U. R.* Rigorous analysis of free solution glycosaminoglycan dynamics using simple, new tools. Glycobiology 2020, 30, 516–527. (PMID: 32080710)
  • Al-Horani, R. A.; Abdelfadiel, E. I.; Afosah, D. K.; Morla, S.; Sistla, J. C.; Mohammed, B.; Martin, E. J.; Sakagami, M.; Brophy, D. F.; Desai, U. R.* A synthetic heparin mimetic that allosterically inhibits factor XIa and reduces thrombosis in vivo without enhanced risk of bleeding. Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis 2019, 17, 2110–2122. (PMID: 31397071)
  • Morla, S.; Sankaranarayanan, NV.; Afosah, D. K.; Kumar, M.; Kummarapurugu, A. B.; Voynow, J. A.; Desai, U. R.* On the process of discovering leads that target the heparin-binding site of neutrophil elastase in the sputum of cystic fibrosis patients. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2019, 62, 5501–5511. (PMID: 31074986)
  • Boothello, R. S.; Patel, N. J.; Sharon, C.; Abdelfadiel, E. I.; Morla, S.; Brophy, D. B.; Lippmann, R. H.; Desai, U. R.;* Patel, B. B.* A unique non-saccharide mimetic of heparin hexasaccharide selectively inhibits cancerous but protects adult colonic stem/progenitor cells via a common mechanism of induction of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 2019, 18, 51–63. (PMID: 30337351)
  • Sistla, J. C.; Morla, S.; Alabbas, A. K.; Kalathur, R. C.; Sharon, C.; Patel, B. B.; Desai, U. R.* Polymeric fluorescent heparin as a one-step FRET substrate of human heparanase. Carbohydrate Polymers 2019, 205, 385–391. (PMID: 30446119).
  • Sankaranarayanan, NV.; Nagarajan, B.; Desai, U. R.* So you think computational approaches for understanding glycosaminoglycan–protein interactions are too dry and too rigid? Think again! Current Opinion in Structural Biology 2018, 50, 91–100. (PMID: 29328962)