Our Team
Meet the researchers and students of the Kumar Research Group
Professor Naresh Kumar
Principal Investigator
The main focus of the research undertaken in my group is the discovery and development of novel bioactive molecules and their application in industrial and medical settings. Naturally produced chemicals are of fundamental importance in biological systems. Such chemicals are used to mediate interactions across all levels of biological hierarchy. Very often such diverse molecules are produced only in minute quantities. New or innovative organic syntheses not only provide access to sufficient quantities of these molecules but also their analogues. The access to various structurally-related analogues allows full assessment of their biological activity and mode of action, and offers opportunities to develop new therapeutic leads. The research is multi-disciplinary in nature and involves a combination of synthetic organic chemistry, molecular modelling and biological screening.
Special Recognition
Emeritus Professor David Black
My Expertise
Agricultural chemicals; chemical nomenclature; chemicals - organic, reagent; drugs; pharmaceutical products & technology;
Biography
Born 1938. Research Associate at Columbia University 1963 - 1964. Appointed Lecturer at Monash University 1965, promoted to Senior Lecturer 1971, Reader 1975. Appointed to Chair of Organic Chemistry UNSW in 1983. Secretary General of IUPAC 2004-2011.
Lecturer & Postdoctoral Researchers
Our experienced research team
Tsz Tin Yu
Lecturer/Associate Lecturer
Synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry, synthesis of bioactive compounds and novel antimicrobial agents.
Tuong To
Postdoctoral Researcher
Synthetic chemistry
PhD Students
Current doctoral research projects
Dittu Suresh
PhD Student
Dual-action antimicrobials focused towards quorum sensing inhibitors and small molecule antimicrobial peptide mimics
Nathan Carey
PhD Student
Synthesising new antimicrobial compounds. Using bacterial iron transport mechanisms to target resistant, virulent bacterial strains.
Rasel Ahmed Khan
PhD Student
Medicinal chemistry: design and development of novel therapeutic agents and next generation quorum sensing inhibitors
Samuel Attard
PhD Student · Site Support Eng
Development of antimicrobial hydrogel-based compounds
Vidia Afina Nuraini
PhD Student
Synthesis of fused tetracyclic indoles and cyclic peptide mimics
Matthew Erlik
PhD Student
Discovery of anticancer drugs
Tope A. Ibisanmi
PhD Student · Site developer
Antimicrobial resistance, computational and experimental drug design
Robert Rourke
PhD Student
Organic synthesis
Master's Students
Graduate research projects
Lilla Nur Firli
MSc Student
Discovering antibacterial compounds from marine sponges. Natural product isolation, structural analysis, and target identification using biotin-tagging and phage display.
Jasper Band
MSc Student
Organic Chemistry
Research Assistant
Yao Cheng, PhD
Research Assistant
Medicinal Chemistry: Design and synthesis of biologically active molecules. Organic Methodology: Development of simple strategies for constructing pharmaceutical scaffolds
Valerio Falasca, PhD
Research Assistant
Anticancer and antiinflammatory drug discovery
Josh Fleming
Research Assistant
Medicinal chemistry projects combining organic synthesis and biotesting
Honours Students
Daniel Guo
Honours Student
Antimicrobial peptide mimics
Zainab Yassine
Honours Student
Developing dual-acting quorum sensing inhibitors
Alumni
Former lab members
Phuoc Linh Dan Nguyen PhD, 2025
Maryam Mirabediny PhD, 2025
Ghayah Bahatheg PhD, 2025
Alyssa Morellini Honours, 2025
Jun Sun PhD, 2025
Xiaoming Fu PhD, 2024
Katrina Browne PhD, 2023
Sudip Chakraborty PhD, 2023
Zijian Hong MPhil, 2023
Sabir Shekh PhD, 2022
John Jones MPhil, 2022
Satyanarayana Gadde PhD, 2022
Tsz Tin Yu PhD, 2022
Eloise O'Brien MIR, 2021
Daniel Wenholz PhD, 2020
Rajesh Kuppusamy PhD, 2019
Jeremy Dobrowolski PhD, 2019
Basmah Almohaywi PhD, 2020
Vina Aldilla PhD, 2020
Vidia Nuraini MSc, 2018
Shashidhar Nizalapur PhD, 2017
Eugene Ming Han Yee PhD, 2017
Hao Jiang PhD, 2017
Kenneth Hong PhD, 2016
Aditi Taunk PhD, 2017
Nripendra Biswas PhD, 2015
Christopher Gardner PhD, 2014
Marcin Mielczarek PhD, 2014
Thanh Le PhD, 2014
Murat Bingul PhD, 2014
Kitty Ho PhD, 2013
Venty Suryanti PhD, 2013
Adeline Lukmantara PhD, 2013
Rui Chen PhD, 2013
Nidup Phushanto MSc, 2013
Samuel Kutty PhD, 2012
Ruth Devakaram PhD, 2012
Hakan Kandemir PhD, 2012
Renxun Chen PhD, 2012
Ibrahim Sengul PhD, 2012
Santosh Rajput PhD, 2012
Ruonan Zhang PhD, 2011
Taj Khan PhD, 2010
Kasey Wood PhD, 2010
Eleanor Eiffe PhD Part-time, 2012
Ji Qu PhD, 2010
Mandar Deodhar PhD, 2007
Kittiya Somphol PhD, 2007
Wai Ching Cheah PhD, 2008
Chao-Wei Leu PhD, 2008
Wai-Kean (Alex) Goh PhD, 2008
Paulo da Silva PhD, 2005
Felicia Maharaj PhD, 2007