Raman Bahal, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutics
Department Pharmaceutical Sciences
University of Connecticut
I am incredibly humbled and honored to receive this recognition from NIPTE and very grateful to the selection committee for recognizing our efforts to contribute to pharmaceutical sciences. We will continue to develop novel therapeutic strategies to treat pediatric blood and brain cancer and genetic diseases at the interface of nucleic acid chemistry and nanotechnology.
Dr. Bahal received his MS Degree from the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali, India, and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Bahal did his postdoctoral training at Yale University and worked on a gene targeting project for treating hematological disorders and cancer. Dr. Bahal joined the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Connecticut as an Assistant Professor in September 2017. His lab is developing new therapeutic modalities for targeting genomic DNA and RNA at the interface of nucleic acid chemistry and nanotechnology.
Dr. Bahal published 40 research papers in prestigious journals: Nature, Nature Communications, Journal of American Chemical Society, Journal of Controlled Release, Journal of Nanobiotechnology, Molecular Therapy-Nucleic acids. Journal of Clinical Investigation, Nanoscale. He is a recipient of Brown Coxe Fellowship in Medical Sciences, St. Baldrick Foundation Research Scholar Grant, Connecticut Innovation Grant, Charles H. Hood Foundation Grant, Cooley’s Anemia Foundation Research Scholar Award, American Cancer society research scholar award, and NIH grants. Recently, he received the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), Excellence in Research & Creativity: Early Career Award.
2021 Research Conference Presentation:
Developing next-generation RNA-Targeted Precision Therapeutics
Our research is centered on nucleic acid chemistry and nanotechnology to target genomic DNA and RNA (coding and non-coding) for diverse therapeutic applications. We explore novel chemical modifications of synthetic nucleic acids for targeting the genomic DNA and RNA with superior efficacy and minimal off-target effects. We developed various novel nanoformulation-based repertoires to deliver diverse classes of synthetic nucleic acids, both ex vivo and in vivo for targeting various malignant diseases like lymphoma and high grade gliomas. Dr. Bahal’s research lab provides essential training in synthetic nucleic acid synthesis, its quality control analysis, biophysical and molecular biology-based studies, development and optimization of novel nanoformulation, and in vivo efficacy and toxicity- based studies.