Navrachana University receives DST-SERB grant for Cancer-Treatment Research

Vadodara Navrachana University faculty, Dr. Amit Patwa (Principal Investigator-Chemistry) and Dr. Parth Pandya (Co- Principal Investigator-Life Sciences), have been jointly awarded a prestigious Inter-disciplinary research funding of approximately Rs. 35,00,000/- to 40,00,000/- from the Department of Science and Technology, Science and Engineering Research Board (DST-SERB), Government of India. The funding comes under the Prestigious-Core Research Grant (CRG) for their project on "Oligonucleotide Amphiphile based Supramolecular Systems for targeted Drug Delivery for Cancer Therapeutics". The project is mainly focused on the design and synthesis of novel molecules for targeted cancer therapeutics/treatment.

According to Dr. Patwa and Dr. Pandya, current therapies for cancer treatment are beset with side effects. Designing a novel molecule for targeting these cells is therefore the need of the hour and their research will open new avenues of selectively targeted therapy using these novel molecules.

Besides a sanctioned Junior Research Fellow (JRF), the investigators also intend to involve Master's and Ph.D. students of the School of Science in the project to expose them to cutting-edge research. Dr. Patwa did his Ph.D. from National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, and pursued post-doctoral research at Bordeaux, France for more than five years and at Boston University, the USA for two years. Currently, Dr. Patwa is working as Assistant Professor in Chemistry, School of Science at Navrachana University. Dr. Pandya is a Ph.D. in Zoology working as an Assistant Professor at the School of Science at Navrachana University and has an ongoing DST project.