Indian Institute of Science’s (IISc) Prof Govindasamy  Mugesh, associate professor, department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry has bagged five awards this year. The recognitions are for his research on  diseases originating from thyroid.

Among  several notable awards include the IAP Young Scientist, Inter-Academy Panel, Italy, RSC-West India Young Scientist Award, a Medal from the Chemical Research Society of India and Central Drug Research Institute Award for Excellence in Drug Research in 2010 alone. Earlier in 2009 and 2008  he received the UKIERI Standard Research Award,  Swarnajayanti Fellowship, Ramanna Fellowship and IUPAC Young Chemist Award.

Recently, the leading  chemical weekly ‘ Angewandte Chemie International Edition’ published Prof. Mugesh’s completion of  a pre-clinical study of a compound that can lead to the development of a potential anti  thyroid agent.

 The main focus of research in Mugesh’s laboratory is to understand the chemistry and biology of medicinally important metalloproteins and to develop novel synthetic methodologies for functionally mimicking the active site of certain enzymes. His laboratory is also interested in the design and synthesis of novel compounds as inhibitors of heme peroxidases and zinc hydrolases.