Umesh Desai earned a Ph.D. from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, India. His training was in organic chemistry with emphasis on steroid's radioimmunoassay but the lab has now developed expertise in computational biology, medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, synthetic organic chemistry, enzymology, biophysical chemistry, and plasma/blood assays and various animal models.
Desai serves as serves as the chair of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry (MEDC), which greatly aids the research performed in the lab.
The Desai lab has published more than 200 research articles, one editorial and 14 book chapters. Desai has also co-edited two volumes of Methods in Molecular Biology (vol. 1229 (2015); vol. 2303 (2022)) on "Glycosaminoglycans", which carry 48 & 67 chapters, respectively, and present fundamentals and application of GAGs in biology.
The Desai lab's translational research has produced several invention disclosures, which have been covered into 8 issued patents so far (few in review). Three of our technologies—monitoring purity of heparins, a novel anti-emphysema agent, and another unique anti-cancer stem cell molecule—have been licensed for further development.
The Desai lab is currently training five Ph.D. students, four postdocs/research scientists and one undergraduate. Since 1998, the Desai lab has trained 14 M.S., 21 Ph.D./M.D.-Ph.D./Pharm.D.-Ph.D. students and 18 postdoctoral scientists. Students/postdocs have primarily pursued academic career (22 to date), pharma/biotech career (20), or clinical career (four physicians/pharmacists to date), or regulatory agency career (one to date).
The Desai Lab at Virginia Commonwealth University is involved in designing/discovering glycosaminoglycan (GAG) and synthetic GAG mimetics for therapeutic applications, especially in the treatment of thrombosis, cancer, inflammation, microbial infection, and thrombopoiesis. The translational outcome of our work is rooted in our fundamental understanding of the interactions of GAGs, and mimetics thereof, with proteins including coagulation factors, growth factors and their receptors, chemokines/cytokines and their receptors, neutrophil elastase, viral surface glycoproteins, heparanase, and others.
We employ cross-disciplinary approaches including computational biology, medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, synthetic organic chemistry, enzymology, biophysical chemistry, and plasma/blood assays and various animal models. This work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NHLBI & NCI), the American Heart Association, the Mizutani Foundation of Japan, and Commonwealth Health Research Board (CHRB) over the past 24 years.
Overall, this work has led to the development of three highly promising molecules that are currently being pursued in advanced pre-clinical studies. First, a synthetic allosteric inhibitor of human factor XIa is being pursued as an anticoagulant (antithrombotic) against coagulopathies such as pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, myocardial infraction, and acute coronary syndromes. Second, a synthetic cancer stem cell (CSC) agent is being pursued to prevent cancer relapse in advanced colorectal (CRC), lung (NSCLC), breast and renal cell carcinoma. Third, a synthetic molecule targeting human G6b-B, a megakaryocyte and platelet inhibitory receptor, as an activator of thrombopoiesis in vitro as well as in vivo. Of these, the anti-CSC and thrombopoiesis activator molecules are being developed in collaboration with the Patel lab of the McGuire VA Medical Center, Richmond, VA and the Hoffmeister lab of the Versiti Blood Research Institute, Milwaukee, WI, respectively.
