Mr. Salman Sadullah Usmani, pursuing Ph.D. under supervision of Prof. G.P.S. Raghava and Dr. Balvinder Singh, has been selected for the “Sun Pharma Science Scholar Award-2019 for Young Scientists” in the field of Pharmaceutical Sciences for his research work entitled “Computer-aided designing of antitubercular peptides”. Sun Pharma Science Scholar Awards are presented to brilliant and up-and-coming young researchers with the aim of discovering young talent in scientific research. These awardsare meant to stimulate young minds to pursue research as a career by soliciting commitment tothe cause of future advancement of science. These young scientists are called Sun PharmaScience Scholars. Each award carries a certificate and a cash award of INR 50,000 and anadditional lump sum amount of Rs.50,000/- for attending an international conference to presentabstract/posters, on submission of invitation letter from the organizing committee and expensestatement.He has developed a knowledgebase, AntiTbPdb and an in silico tool, AntiTbPred, topredict and design antitubercular peptides. Implementing these tools, predicted the antitubercular activity of a peptide named as IMT-P8 and then validated it’s in vitro as well asintracellular antimycobacterial activity. He also demonstrated its synergism with several anti-TB drugs as well as repositioning of an antimalarial drug, a quite significant approach incombating drug resistance. On a broader prospective, the project demonstrated the significanceof peptide based therapy.
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