Dr. Gavande has extensive experience working at the interface of chemistry and biology. Dr. Gavande has received industrial and academic training in research throughout the preclinical drug discovery and development process, from target identification, validation, and high-throughput screening to in vitro and in vivo hit-to-lead optimization. During Dr. Gavande’s doctoral studies under Prof. Mary Chebib (Collins) and Prof. Jane R. Hanrahan at the University of Sydney (Australia), he worked on several medicinal chemistry projects including the development of novel GABA receptor ligands for the treatment of CNS disorders and pan-PPARs agonists for the treatment of diabetes. During his time in industry where he worked on Eli-Lilly drug discovery projects, Dr. Gavande’s research included SAR development of diverse nitrogen-enriched heterocyclic scaffolds as anti-cancer agents. Dr. Gavande has worked with distinguished Prof. Arun K. Ghosh as a postdoctoral fellow at Purdue University on several medicinal chemistry projects such as the development of inhibitors of CXCR-4, the HIV protease, β-secretase, and viral capsids. The Ghosh laboratory is recognized for the development of Darunavir (Prezista®), an FDA approved first-line treatment for HIV/AIDS patients. As a postdoctoral fellow and research assistant professor at Indiana University School of Medicine with Prof. John J. Turchi, Dr. Gavande developed inhibitors of pharmacological targets implicated in DNA damage repair including RPA, XPA and DNA-PK. Beginning his career as a faculty member at Wayne State University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in 2019, he has since established an all-inclusive drug discovery and development lab with expertise in computational chemistry/biology, synthetic/medicinal chemistry, and biological assessment.

The highly interdisciplinary research in Dr. Gavande laboratory focuses on the preclinical development of novel anticancer, antiviral, and anti-MRSA drugs. His team includes expertise in medicinal chemistry, structure-based drug design, molecular modeling, biochemical and biophysical assays, molecular biology, analytical chemistry, cell biology, and animal studies.