Discovery and Development of Neuroprotective Agents from Natural Products

Professor Dr. Goutam Brahmachari was born at Barala in the district of Murshidabad (West Bengal), India, on April 14, 1969. He received his high school degree in scientific studies in 1986 at Barala R. D. Sen High School under the West Bengal Council of Higher secondary Education (WBCHSE). Then he moved to Visva-Bharati (a central university founded by Rabindranath Tagore at Santiniketan, West Bengal, India) to study chemistry at the undergraduate level. After graduating from this university in 1990, Prof. Brahmachari completed his masters in 1992 with specialization in organic chemistry and thereafter received his PhD degree in 1997 in chemistry from the same university. He was appointed as assistant professor of organic chemistry in the Department of Chemistry, Visva-Bharati University, in 1998, and became associate professor in 2008. In 2011, he became full professor of organic chemistry in the same faculty. At present, he is responsible for teaching courses in organic chemistry, natural products chemistry, and physical methods in organic chemistry. Several students have received their PhD degree under the supervision of Prof. Brahmachari during this period, and a couple of research fellows are presently working with him both in the fields of natural products and synthetic organic chemistry. He serves as a member of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) and Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA), Kolkata, and as an Editor-in-Chief, Signpost Open Access Journal of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry. He also serves as an editorial advisory board member for several journals and is the Who’s Who in the World-2015 Listee. He is a recipient of the 3rd Academic Brilliance Award-2015 (Award for Excellence in Research).

Prof. Brahmachari’s research interests include (i) synthetic organic chemistry with special emphasis on green chemistry; (ii) isolation, structural determination, and/or detailed NMR study of new natural products from medicinal plants; (iii) semi-synthetic studies with natural products; and (iv) evaluation of biological activities and pharmacological potential of natural and synthetic compounds. With more than 16 years of teaching experience, he has produced so far nearly 120 scientific publications including original research papers, review articles, and invited book chapters in edited books in the field of natural products and organic synthesis from internationally reputed presses. Prof. Brahmachari has authored/edited a number of text and major reference books that include Organic Name Reactions: A Unified Approach (Narosa Publishing House, New Delhi; co-published by Alpha Science International, Oxford, 2006), Chemistry of Natural Products: Recent Trends & Developments (Research Signpost, 2006), Organic Chemistry Through Solved Problems (Narosa Publishing House, New Delhi; co-published by Alpha Science International, Oxford, 2007), Natural Products: Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacology (Narosa Publishing House, New Delhi; co-published by Alpha Science International, Oxford, 2009), Handbook of Pharmaceutical Natural Products—2 volume-set (Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany, 2010), Bioactive Natural Products: Opportunities & Challenges in Medicinal Chemistry (World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., Singapore, 2011), Chemistry and Pharmacology of Naturally Occurring Bioactive Compounds (CRC Press, Taylor & Francis group, USA, 2013), Natural Bioactive Molecules: Impacts & Prospects (Narosa Publishing House, New Delhi; co-published by Alpha Science International, Oxford, 2014), Green Synthetic Approaches for Biologically Relevant Heterocycles (Elsevier Inc., USA, 2014), and Bioactive Natural Products—Chemistry & Biology (Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany, 2015).

He is regularly consulted as a referee by leading international journals including Elsevier, Royal Society of Chemistry, American Chemical Society, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, Springer, Bentham Science, Indian Chemical Society, Pakistan Chemical Society, Korean Chemical Society, Brazilian Chemical Society, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and so on, and also various financial commissions.

Prof. Brahmachari enjoys Songs of Rabindranath Tagore and finds interests in Literature as well!