The mission of the Kancharla laboratory, in the Department of Chemistry at Portland State University, is to develop new, safe, and affordable medicines for the prevention and treatment of human diseases using both natural and synthetic sources. The team is particularly focused on discovering and developing next-generation antimalarial agents capable of targeting multiple stages of the Plasmodium parasite life cycle, with novel mechanisms of action to overcome
emerging drug resistance. Malaria, caused by the single-celled Plasmodium parasite transmitted by female Anopheles mosquitoes, affects more than 200 million people annually and claims the lives of nearly half a million-predominantly young children and pregnant women. Over the past decade, the Kancharla group, led by Dr. Papireddy Kancharla in collaboration with Dr. Kevin Reynolds and Dr. Jane Kelly, has pioneered the discovery of natural product-inspired antimalarial chemotypes, including tambjamines and prodiginines. These compounds exhibit potent multi-stage activity and hold promise for preventing relapsing liver-stage infections through novel mechanisms of action. Current efforts are focused on extensive structural optimization of these scaffolds to identify the most promising candidates for preclinical development. Beyond malaria, the Kancharla team is also actively engaged in developing innovative therapeutic leads for other major global health challenges, including leishmaniasis, fungal, bacterial and cancer.