Professor Bhaskar Das, PhD, tackles major diseases by focusing on minor details: the molecules they’re made of. Das heads the Division of Drug and Biotherapeutic Discovery at the UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and is a leading expert in the development of new therapeutic and diagnostic compounds focused on brain development and diseases. 

Das’s research lab is located in BEP’s Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences (CBLS), where he has access to resources that support both the science and the efforts to commercialize it. Within his first year at UB, Das was able to establish his lab, start synthesizing chemicals, secure six grants and file three new patents.

Das currently holds 52 patents with three more currently being processed that cover novel compounds used to treat brain cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and kidney fibrosis. Several of Das’s patents have been acquired by major pharmaceutical companies to create new therapeutics to treat a host of debilitating diseases. 

Recently, Das was awarded $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Army Medical Research & Development Command and $1 million from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to advance his research.

With support from BEP, Das has developed critical collaborations across departments and is expanding into bioinformatics and AI for drug discovery. These partnerships will allow him to expand the capabilities of a modeling software he developed to visualize molecular targets and design a compound to provide insights and guidance that could streamline protein synthesis in the lab. 

“My focus is on developing first-in-class compounds rather than best-in-class compounds,” says Das. “Here at UB we have put all things together to make that happen— the space, the resources, the ability to have open discussion and collaborative problem-solving combining expertise from clinicians, biologists and medicinal chemists.”