Dr. Prabhat Arya joins Medicinal Chemistry Program for term as Visiting Scientist

Dr. Prabhat Arya

In November 2007, Dr. Prabhat Arya, a highly productive research chemist, accepted an invitation from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research to complete a term in as a Visiting Scientist to help launch its Medicinal Chemistry Program.

“We are pleased to have Dr. Arya’s expert advice and help to coordinate the launch of our Medicinal Chemistry laboratory. We are building an outstanding program, and to do that we need scientists like Dr. Arya,” said Dr. Tom Hudson, President and Scientific Director of OICR.

Working closely with newly recruited Medicinal Chemistry Director Dr. Rima Al-awar, Arya is leading a team that will develop novel methods for obtaining a high-throughput generation of natural product-inspired chemical entities. Through partnerships with biomedical researchers, these chemical tools will then be used in high-throughput screening studies in search of small molecule modulators to probe signalling pathways. These probes will be used to print small molecule microchips in collaboration with the Chemical Biology Program at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. He will also advise on the development of OICR’s organic synthesis laboratory at the MaRS Centre in Toronto.

Arya says that to benefit from recent progress in genome research and to enjoy the high-hanging fruits, the post-genomic era is now challenging researchers to develop integrated new research models.

“OICR is setting the stage to move in this direction,” he says. “What is truly remarkable about OICR, and Toronto in general, is that all the needed competencies to develop new models are in close proximity.”

Arya completed his B.Sc. (Hons), M.Sc., M.Phil. and PhD (in synthetic organic chemistry) at Delhi University and then pursued his postdoctoral studies at Cambridge University in the UK and McGill University in Montreal during the 1980s. Since then, he has held research appointments in India, France, the UK, Quebec and Ontario.

Currently a researcher with the National Research Council in Ottawa, Arya is also an adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa (biochemistry), Queen’s University (chemistry) and McGill University (biochemistry), a member of the Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology and the Ottawa Health Research Institute. Over the next few months, Arya will split his time between Ottawa and Toronto.