Indian origin infectious disease expert honored as UCF 2024 Pegasus Professor

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Infectious disease expert of Indian origin, Dr. Debopam Chakrabarti, has been named a University of Central Florida (UCF) 2024 Pegasus Professor, the university’s most prestigious faculty honor. He heads the Division of Molecular Microbiology of the College of Medicine, Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Central Florida.

The Pegasus Professorship recognizes faculty who have a global influence in their fields, advance student success and make valuable research discoveries that elevate UCF’s reputation for excellence and impact. UCF’s 2024 Pegasus Professors represent different disciplines and colleges. The three honorees this year – Chakrabarti battles malaria, Thomas Bryer empowers neighborhoods, and Damla Turgut promotes smart technology that improves lives – will receive $5,000 in earnings.

Chakrabarti’s research focus is malaria, the world’s deadliest mosquito-borne illness that in 2022 inflicted nearly 250 million people and killed 600,000 around the globe. Malaria is getting tougher to treat as it becomes resistant to current therapies. Chakrabarti is investigating using cancer drugs and identifying natural product-derived antimalarials from fungi, bacteria, coral, and sponges to find new ways to treat malaria. “My anti-malaria drug discovery program started at UCF,” said Chakrabarti, who joined UCF in 1995. “It’s a UCF-grown program that is finding the cure for malaria.”

UCF infectious disease specialist Chakrabarti fights malaria, the world’s deadliest mosquito-borne illness. A pioneering leader in his field Chakrabarti pursues novel approaches with other expert researchers to conquer a disease that in 2022 inflicted nearly 250 million people and killed 600,000 around the globe, hitting sub-Saharan Africa especially hard. The researchers’ efforts include enlisting cancer drugs, repurposing other approved medicines, and identifying promising natural product-derived antimalarials from sources such as fungi, bacteria, coral, and sponges from the ocean. Existing drugs are losing traction in preventing and curing malaria cases. The disease is getting tougher to treat as parasites become more resistant.

Led by Chakrabarti, UCF is at the forefront of finding and accelerating fresh alternatives. His early research on malaria produced a breakthrough by initiating gene fragment sequencing to better understand and target parasites. Chakrabarti was also among the first to explore repurposing cancer drugs for malaria therapy. Now, a 5-year, $3.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health partners UCF researchers with scientists at Stanford University and the University of California San Diego to test cancer drugs for malaria-thwarting properties. Their study was published recently in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

Through a second $3.8 million NIH grant, Chakrabarti’s team partners with a University of Oklahoma chemist to examine how fungus-derived compounds kill the malaria parasite, with insights detailed last month in Cell Chemical Biology. Chakrabarti’s prominence in malaria research developed after he left the University of Florida as the scientific director of molecular biology services for a new research opportunity at a smaller school of 25,000 students near Orlando. He wasn’t sold initially on leaving Gainesville.

UCF was known for optics, lasers, and engineering, yet the university had done little research in the biomedical sciences and lacked a doctoral program in the discipline. “Once I got the offer, I had to think about whether it would be a wise decision to join when there was nothing there almost,” he says. But Chakrabarti saw a bold future for UCF and Orlando, already a fast-growing major metropolitan area with the potential for attracting a medical school and more health-related research.

He was involved in the expansion of UCF’s biomedical research programs, which eventually led to the development of the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences. Chakrabarti was part of the team that created a doctoral program in biomedical sciences and a bachelor’s degree program in biotechnology. He also fashioned a biotechnology laboratory course that gained international attention. In the mid-1990s, Chakrabarti was among UCF’s first faculty members to attain an NIH grant, starting a funding streak with the federal agency that continues. His work has resulted in four patents for innovative antimalarial programs and four more pending applications.

He is also training the next generation of scientists, preparing UCF students for successful careers, and fostering interest among high school students in biomedical studies. “UCF is a young institution. Its growth is creating new opportunities and directions, and that’s very gratifying,” he says.

 

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