Dr. Utsab Debnath 

Dr. Debnath received postdoctoral experience in medicinal chemistry from Bose Institute, Kolkata, India. Before that, he received a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical chemistry from CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow (Degree conferred by Faculty of Pharmacy, Integral University, Lucknow, India). Dr. Debnath completed his bachelor's in pharmacy and masters in pharmaceutical chemistry from West Bengal University of Technology, India.

Research experience is more than 13 years, and teaching experience is more than six years.

Research interest in design, synthesis, biological studies, and structure-activity relationship studies (SAR) of anti-infective (HIV-1, SARS-CoV-2, Malaria) and anti-cancer agents.

Dr. Debnath was awarded the ‘National Postdoctoral Fellowship’ under the ‘DST-Young Scientist Scheme’ of Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), New Delhi in 2017 for two years to perform research work in cancer. He was also awarded ‘Direct Senior Research Fellowship’ from Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) New Delhi in 2011 for a period of four years to carry Ph.D. research on HIV-1. He has qualified GPAT conducted by AICTE. He has completed an extramural research project as principal investigator.

UPES-affiliated publications:

• Debnath U, Amrita Mitra, Dewakar V, Prabhakar Y, Mandal AK. Conformational perturbation of SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein using N-acetyl cysteine: An exploration of the probable mechanism of action to combat COVID-19. J Biomol Struct Dyn. 2023 (accepted). 
• Karim S, Halder S, Mukherjee S, Debnath U, Misra AK, Jana K, Das D., Glutathione Depleting a Chemoselective Novel Pro-oxidant Nano Metal–Organic Framework Induced G2/M Arrest and ROS-Mediated Apoptotic Cell Death in a Human Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cell Line ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2023 15 (22), 26442-26456 
• Das K, Rahaman SKB, Upadhyay S, Das D, Debnath U*. Non-vesicular lipid transport machinery in Trichomonas vaginalis: novel drug targets against Trichomoniasis. Curr Top Med Chem. 2022 (in press) 
• Bera P, Aher A, Brandao P, Debnath U, Dewaker V, Manna SK, Jana A, Pramanik C, Mandal B, Bera P. Instigating the In Vitro Anticancer Activity of New Pyridine-Thiazole-Based Co(III), Mn(II), and Ni(II) Complexes: Synthesis, Structure, DFT, Docking, and MD Simulation Studies. J Chem Inf Model. 2022, 62(6):1437-1457. 
• Debnath U*, Verma S, Patra J, Mandal S K. A review on recent synthetic routes and computational approaches for antibody drug conjugation developments in anti-cancer therapy, J Mol Stru. 1256, 2022,132524. 
• Joardar N, Shit P, Halder S, Debnath U, Saha S, Misra AK, Jana K, Sinha Babu S.P. Disruption of redox homeostasis with synchronized activation of apoptosis highlights the anti filarial efficacy of novel piperine derivatives: an in vitro mechanistic approach. Free Radic. Biol. Med., 2021, 169: 343–360.
• Mandal, S., Debnath U., Sarkar, J. Structural-Genetic Characterization of Novel Butaryl co-A Dehydrogenase and Proposition of Butanol Biosynthesis Pathway in Pusillimonas ginsengisoli SBSA. J Mol Evol. 2021, 89, 81–94.

Dr. Debnath believes that current teaching methods need to be modified to produce effective learners and make the learning process more significant. He uses the “Constructivism framework” policy to improve active learning rather than spoon-feeding with information. He prefers to use PowerPoint presentations and good-quality audio-video materials to make the topic of discussion more attractive to students. Also, he favors giving problems to the students to determine through proper group discussion and, afterward, providing study materials and taking regular class tests to assess their level of understanding.

Taking bachelor and master classes (B.Pharm & MSc) for the subjects related to pharmaceutical inorganic chemistry, pharmaceutical organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and drug design and development. 

utsab.debnath@ddn.upes.ac.in