Kancharla Group Members Page

Dr. Papireddy (Reddy) Kancharla, PhD

Research Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon

Contact information:
1719 SW 10th Avenue
Portland, Oregon-97201, USA
Laboratory @SRTC-351; Office @SRTC-306
Contact: (503) 725-2566 (Office)
E-mail: papiredd@pdx.edu 

Biography:
Dr. Kancharla received a PhD in Chemistry from Acharya Nagarjuna University, India, in 2010 focusing on isolation and synthesis of various natural products of therapeutic importance. His doctoral research was completed with the aid of a fellowship granted by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, under the supervision of Dr. Narender Tadigoppula at the Central Drug Research Institute. Then he moved to Portland State University to pursue his postdoctoral training with Prof. Kevin Reynolds. He is a dedicated and passionate chemist with over 20 years of broad and extensive experience in the field of synthetic organic chemistry, drug discovery, medicinal chemistry, natural products, and biosynthesis. Specifically, he has broad experience in drug discovery and development of several novel antimalarial chemotypes, including prodiginines, tambjamines, acridones, marineosins and chalcones. He has been a successful Principal Investigator on many interdisciplinary research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other funding agencies. He has published over 30 peer-reviewed publications in high impact scientific journals that have been heavily cited by other researchers across the globe. He started his independent career at Portland State University in 2019 as a Research Assistant Professor with a primary goal of facilitating translation of recent advances in basic science to novel therapeutics. His current research interests are in medicinal chemistry, drug discovery, and natural products, specifically for novel antiparasitic chemotypes. 

Dr. Jane Kelly, PhD

Research Professor
Dr. Kelly is an expert medicinal/bioanalytical chemist with broad and extensive experience in the drug discovery and development program. She has over 25 years of experience in drug discovery and development of antimalarials, making numerous acridones, and she implemented all related blood stage testing and mechanistic studies. Over the last ten years, Drs. Kelly and Kancharla have been closely collaborating on multiple National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded antimalarial research projects, and have published several papers on novel antimalarial prodiginines, tambjamines, and acridones. 

Dr. Kevin Reynolds, PhD 

Professor of Chemistry
Dr. Reynolds is an eminent scientist with extensive expertise and experience in various natural products biosynthetic pathways and chemical synthesis of intricate natural product derivatives of therapeutic implications. He has over 30 years of experience in natural products and biochemistry and published over 115 peer-reviewed papers. Over the past 15 years, Drs. Reynolds and Kancharla have been closely working on multiple research projects. They successfully completed many challenging tasks of the NIH funded projects, and have co-authored more than 10 papers together. In particular, they have elucidated biosynthetic pathways of various complex natural products that were isolated from soil and marine bacteria, and subsequently discovered the natural product inspired novel antimalarial prodiginines, tambjamines and marineosins. 

Mrs. Rosie Dodean, MS 

Senior Research Associate
Mrs. Dodean is a dedicated chemist with broad and extensive experience in synthetic organic chemistry. Over the past 15 years, she has been working on several novel antimalarial chemotypes both at Portland State University and Portland VA Research Foundation. She has published a number of papers with Dr. Kelly and Dr. Kancharla. In addition, she has experience in chemical engineering and teaching all levels of chemistry at local community and private colleges. Rosie’s primary goal is to develop a safe and efficient drug for the prevention and treatment of malaria. 
 

Dr. Amrendra Kumar, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Kumar is an organic chemist with extensive experience in method development and synthesis of hetero cyclic compounds of biological importance. In 2021, he obtained a PhD degree in chemistry from Jawaharlal Nehru University, under the supervision of Dr. Tadigoppula at the Central Drug Research Institute, India. His dissertation work focused on the Ruthenium and Palladium catalyzed synthesis of highly substituted indole and quinoline derivatives. Dr. Kumar joined the Kancharla lab in January 2023, and currently he is synthesizing a series of novel tambjamines and prodiginines for antimalarial and antileishmanial testing.

Dr. Sivanna Chithanna

Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Chithanna is a specialist in organic chemistry who has extensive knowledge in the synthesis of diverse hetero cyclic compounds and natural product derivatives. He obtained a PhD degree in chemistry from Tunghai University, Taiwan, in 2021, under the supervision of Ding-Yah Yang. His dissertation work focused on the synthesis of β-enamino diketones and enamides. Dr. Chithannna published several research articles in highly reputed journals during his dissertation. He joined the Kancharla lab in November 2023. Before joining Kancharla’s lab, he worked at the University of Louisville Health–Brown Cancer Center in Louisville as a postdoc. Currently he is synthesizing a series of novel PPM natural products derivatives for antimalarial testing.

Mr. Sean Murphy

Chemistry Research Intern
Mr. Murphy is a first-year student at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. He has been interning in Kancharla lab since June 2024. Currently he is synthesizing novel analogues of various natural products for antimalarial testing.

Mr. Marcus Lam

A student participant of the NIH/NIDDK STEP-UP Program
Mr. Lam is a Junior (a rising Senior) at Wilsonville High School, Wilsonville, Oregon. He has been interning in Kancharla lab since June 2024. Currently he is synthesizing BODIPY conjugates with natural products for antimalarial evaluation.