Atul Kumar

Atul Kumar [ अतुल कुमार् ] (Born, April 28, 1963, Lucknow, India) is a scientist in the Central Drug Research Institute of Lucknow, India.^[1] His areas of research are organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry and drug design. He has made significant contributions to research on osteoporosis, cancer, Tuberculosis, diabetes and other metabolic disorders. He also has considerable contributions in the area of organic chemistry particularly in the development of organocatalysed synthesis, Biomimetic synthesis, Multicomponent Reaction, Green Chemistry, Sonochemistry, Enzymatic synthesis, and Diversity Oriented synthesis, Functional Ionic Liquid Mediated Synthesis (FILMS).

Education & Profession

Atul Kumar obtained his masters degree and Ph.D from Lucknow University, then worked as a post-doc at the SUNY Buffalo. He is working as a Principal scientist (Scfaculty member) in the department of Medicinal Chemistry at the Central Drug Research Institute in Lucknow, India. He has developed a new drug candidates “CENTHANK” CDRI-99-373,(anti-resorptive agent)for the treatment of osteoporosis which is currently in Phase I clinical trials,^[2] diabetes and breast cancer,^[3] which are in preclinical stages. In the area of Medicinal Chemistry, he has some nice contributions such as He has developed a natural product inspired diversity oriented synthesis of tetrahydroquinoline analogues as Antitubercular agents, .^[4] He has reported Pyranocoumarins: A new class of anti-hyperglycemic and anti-dyslipidemic agents .^[5],Design and synthesis of 1,3-biarylsulfanyl derivatives as new anti-breast cancer agents.^[6]

In the area of organic synthesis, he has been involved in the development of new catalysts such as Liposomised mCPBA (LIP-mCPBA), new solid-supported hypervalent iodine reagents, and the use of human hemoglobin (HbA) and supramolecular carbohydrate molecules as solid catalysts for the synthesis of bioactive molecules. He has extensively contributed to the development of organocatalysed synthesis, biomimetic synthesis, multicomponent reaction, sonochemistry, enzymatic synthesis, high-throughput synthesis and diversity oriented synthesis.

Dr. Kumar was the first to demonstrate that single nucleotides have the ability to catalyze organic reactions, and performed Biomimetic reductive amination, which is considered as one of the most genuine biomimetic reactions of organic chemistry. This single-nucleotide catalysis has immense impact on many fields of science such as chemistry, biochemistry, and prebiotic studies, especially the RNA world and DNA world hypothesis for understanding the origin of life on Earth.^[7]

Dr. Kumar has reported an efficient and conceptually different approach toward C-H bond activation by using iodine mediated sp(3) C-H functionalization for the synthesis of alkyl azaarene pyridinium zwitterions..^[8]

Dr. Kumar has recently demonstrated a new protocol for organic synthesis involving Functional Ionic Liquids and named this new methodology as Functional Ionic Liquid Mediated Synthesis (FILMS)..^[9]

These studies have resulted in publication of about 65 original research papers, and 42 patents.

Awards and honors

Kumar has won several awards for the design,synthesis and discovery of New Chemical Entities (NCEs) for various therapeutic areas associated with women reproductive health (osteoporosis) and metabolic diseases like diabetes^[10] & anti cancer.The discovery of anti-osteoporosis agent CDRI-99-373, this drug was also recognized as a "notable Science and technological achievement" by the Government of India Planning Commission in its ``Report of Steering Committee of Science and Technology for eleventh Five year plan (2007-2012).^[11]

He has received several honors and awards, notably the Organization of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) OPPI SCIENTIST AWARD 2007.^[12][13][14] This award is given by Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan, Hon. Minster for Chemical and Fertilizers, Government of India at Mumbai,^[15] including R 1,00,000.00 as a cash award. He also received CDRI Incentive Awards for years 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008,2009,2010 and 2011.^[16]

Several of his publications in synthetic chemistry and medicinal chemistry have been recognized as distinguish research contributions:

• "Synthesis of Benzimidazoles, Benzoxazoles and Benzothiazoles with PDAIS" (J. Combinatorial Chemistry, 2009) was listed as a distinguished paper in SYNFACT^[17]
• His papers published as Tetrahedron Letters 34, 4751, 1996, Tetrahedron Letters 37,3463, 1993 were listed in the "HEART CUT" Column of "CHEM TECH" (ACS Publication) as distinguished papers.
• His work on diabetes has been cited by the "Nature” eMagazine Nature India in its Research highlights.^[18][18]
• His paper on the synthesis of heterocycles using aqueous micelles and ultrasonic irradiation is listed in the Organic Chemistry Portal.^[19]
• His paper " ß-cyclodextrin catalysed synthesis of Tryptanthrin " has been listed in Top ten most accessed articles of Green Chemistry.^[20]*
• His paper " Functional ionic liquid mediated synthesis (FILMS) of dihydrothiophenes and tacrine derivatives" has been listed in Top ten most accessed articles of Green Chemistry.^[21]
• His paper "Single Nucleotide-Catalyzed Biomimetic Reductive Amination" has been covered by the "Nature” eMagazine Nature India in its Research highlights "Probing the origin of life".^[22][23]

References