Biography:
Dr. Akash Panja is a postdoctoral researcher at Ariel University, where he completed his PhD in June 2025 under Prof. Gary Gellerman. As a medicinal chemist, he specializes in designing, synthesizing, and evaluating advanced Targeted Drug Delivery (TDD) systems, focusing on antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and peptide-drug conjugates (PDCs). His research utilizes targeting carriers to exploit receptor-mediated selective uptake. By pairing unique homing ligands with diverse payloads and custom linkers, his work establishes novel pathways to bypass downstream cellular resistance boundaries and eradicate aggressive, KRAS-mutant solid tumors.
Title : Advancing EGFR-targeting macrocyclic peptide-drug conjugates to target KRAS-mutant solid tumors: Design, synthesis, and preclinical evaluations