Kancharla Group Members Page

Dr. Papireddy (Reddy) Kancharla, PhD

Research Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon

Contact information:
1719 SW 10th Avenue
Portland, Oregon-97201, USA
Laboratory @SRTC-351; Office @SRTC-306
Contact: (503) 725-2566 (Office)
E-mail: papiredd@pdx.edu 

Biography:
Dr. Papireddy Kancharla received his PhD in Chemistry from Acharya Nagarjuna University, India, in 2010, where his research focused on the isolation and synthesis of natural products of therapeutic importance. His doctoral work was conducted under the supervision of Dr. Narender Tadigoppula at the Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), supported by a prestigious fellowship from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Following his PhD, Dr. Kancharla joined Portland State University as a postdoctoral researcher under the mentorship of Prof. Kevin Reynolds, where he expanded his expertise in medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, and natural product-inspired drug discovery. He is a dedicated and passionate chemist with more than two decades of broad experience spanning synthetic organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, natural products, biosynthesis, and translational drug discovery. Dr. Kancharla’s research focuses on the discovery and development of novel antimalarial chemotypes, including prodiginines, tambjamines, acridones, marineosins and chalcones. As Principal Investigator on several interdisciplinary research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other funding agencies, he has made significant contributions to the advancement of antiparasitic drug discovery. His research program has collectively attracted over $10 million in competitive funding. He has published more than 40 peer-reviewed papers in high-impact journals, and his work is widely cited by researchers around the world. Dr. Kancharla began his independent career at Portland State University in 2019 as a Research Assistant Professor and was promoted to Research Associate Professor rank in 2024. His laboratory aims to translate discoveries in basic science into novel therapeutics. His current research interests include medicinal chemistry, drug discovery, and natural product chemistry, with an emphasis on developing new chemotypes for the treatment and prevention of parasitic diseases. 

Dr. Jane Kelly, PhD

Research Professor
Dr. Kelly is an accomplished medicinal and bioanalytical chemist with broad expertise spanning all phases of drug discovery and development. She has more than 25 years of experience in antimalarial drug research, with a particular focus on the synthesis and optimization of acridone-based scaffolds, and has implemented comprehensive blood-stage efficacy testing and mechanistic studies. Over the past decade, Drs. Kelly and Kancharla have established a highly productive collaboration through multiple NIH-funded antimalarial research projects, resulting in several joint publications on novel prodiginine, tambjamine, and acridone chemotypes. Over the past seven years, they have co-submitted numerous research proposals and have successfully secured more than $20 million in external research funding from various federal agencies. 

Dr. Kevin Reynolds, PhD 

Professor of Chemistry
Dr. Reynolds is a distinguished scientist with extensive expertise in natural product biosynthesis and the chemical synthesis of complex natural product derivatives with therapeutic potential. He has more than 30 years of experience in natural products chemistry and biochemistry and has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers. Over the past 15 years, Drs. Reynolds and Kancharla have collaborated closely on multiple NIH-funded research projects, successfully completing several challenging objectives and co-authoring more than 15 publications. Notably, their work has elucidated the biosynthetic pathways of diverse natural products isolated from soil and marine bacteria and led to the discovery of novel, natural product–inspired antimalarial chemotypes, including prodiginines, tambjamines, and marineosins. 

Mrs. Rosie Dodean, MS 

Senior Research Associate
Mrs. Dodean is a dedicated chemist with broad expertise in synthetic organic chemistry and extensive experience in antimalarial drug discovery. Over the past 15 years, she has contributed to the development of several novel antimalarial chemotypes through her work at Portland State University and the Portland VA Research Foundation. She has co-authored multiple publications with Drs. Kelly and Kancharla and has also brought her expertise to the classroom, teaching various levels of chemistry at local community and private colleges. Driven by a strong commitment to global health, Rosie’s primary goal is to contribute to the development of safe and effective drugs for the prevention and treatment of malaria.

Dr. Amrendra Kumar, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Kumar is an organic chemist with extensive experience in method development and the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds of biological relevance. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2021 from Jawaharlal Nehru University, under the supervision of Dr. Tadigoppula at the Central Drug Research Institute, India. His doctoral research focused on ruthenium- and palladium-catalyzed syntheses of highly substituted indole and quinoline derivatives. Dr. Kumar joined the Kancharla Laboratory in January 2023, where he is currently engaged in the design and synthesis of novel tambjamine and prodiginine analogs for antimalarial and antileishmanial evaluation.