Prof Javed Iqbal PhD, FASc, FNA,
Chairman, Incor Renovis Labs Pvt Ltd., Hyderabad, President, Incor Life Sciences, USA
Prof Iqbal graduated from Delhi University and worked as a scientist at Ranbaxy Laboratories, New Delhi and subsequently worked as an SERC post-doctoral fellow at Cambridge University in the research group of Prof Ian Fleming, FRS. He later moved to Oxford University and worked as a research fellow with Prof J. E. Baldwin, FRS. He was a Professor at IIT Kanpur during 1984-99 and later moved to Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (DRL), Hyderabad where he served as Distinguished Research Scientist and Global Head, Discovery Chemistry and subsequently as Director, Dr Reddy’s Institute of Life sciences (2000-2013).
Javed has contributed significantly in the area of catalysis in organic synthesis, Drug discovery, process chemistry and synthesis of natural products. His research activities were focused around development of new catalysts based on cobalt leading to a versatile oxidation reaction using molecular oxygen. His other significant contribution is in the area of drug discovery where his group has researched extensively on Peptidomimetics as novel therapeutic agents. His research group also worked on mimics of protein motifs by synthesizing small cyclic peptides having -turns or helical structures. He has contributed significantly on new drug discovery in the area of diabetes, cancer and infectious diseases. His research activities at DRL involved design and synthesis of small molecules to modulate disease targets like PPAR, AMPK, JNK, Raf and Aurora kinases. Four of the new chemical entities (NCE) discovered for metabolic syndrome by his group at Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (DRL) were taken into phase I clinical trials in Canada and UK. He has guided 30 PhD students and has published more than 200 research papers and has filed 105 patents in the area of diabetes, infectious diseases, cancer, process chemistry for API’s and pharmaceutical co-crystals. Javed is the promoter of two startup companies called Cosmic Discoveries and Zephase Therapeutics. Cosmic Discoveries has developed process chemistry for 30-40 APIs and intermediates for Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd and several other Indian Pharmaceutical companies.
He has also served as Director of National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST) Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Trivandrum during 2002. He was visiting fellow at University of Notre Dame, USA, University of Montpellier, France and University of Okayama, Japan. Javed has also taught undergraduate Chemistry Courses at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, USA in the summer semesters during 1997-99. He was William Evans Fellow in the Department of Chemistry, University of Otago, New Zealand during March-April, 2016. He was a visiting Professor at Department of Chemistry, University of Regensburg Germany in May, 2019. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at Department of Chemistry, IIT-ISM, Dhanbad and School of Molecular Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.
Javed is the fellow of both science academies of India and was member of IUPAC committee on Chemicals and Drugs and now a fellow of IUPAC. He was a member of Prime Minister’s committee on Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) society and is a member of Department of Science and Technology’s (Government of India) committee on Drugs and Pharmaceuticals. Javed served as Chairman, Program Advisory Committee (PAC) for Organic Chemistry of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) during 2004-08. He was Chairman of the selection committee for Chemical Sciences of CSIR, Government of India and is currently the Chairman, Research Council, CSIR-NIIST, Trivandrum.
Javed was Director of Dr Reddy’s Institute of Life Sciences, Hyderabad during 2007-20013. He was on the international advisory board of medicinal chemistry journal CHEMMEDCHEM published by Wiley-VCH and represents India as member of Regional committee on Asia and Pacific (RCAP) of International council of Science (ICSU) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and is Chair, Science planning group on Epigenitics of RCAP, ICSU Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He was leader of the Indian Delegation to IUPAC General Assembly (GA) held at Istambul, Turkey in 2013.
He is currently Co-Founder and Chairman, Incor Renovis Laboratories Private Limited, Hyderabad; Co-Founder and Director, Peptomedica Biotech Pty Ltd., Melbourne, Australia and President, Incor Life Sciences, USA.