AVINASH KHANNA, PHD
U. S. CITIZEN
11 LAUREL ST, APT 3
SOMERVILLE, MA 02143
(516) 637-0770
AKHANNA@FAS.HARVARD.EDU
SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS
Highly adaptable, results oriented chemist with expertise in organic and medicinal chemistry along with
target validation.
 Strong experience in development, optimization, and mechanistic study of metal-catalyzed
reactions
 Extensive background in SAR and SKR using SBDD and physical-organic principles for the
design of long residence time inhibitors and characterization of their affinities
 Strong interpersonal and teamwork skills; successfully led an external interdisciplinary
collaboration within a team and individually
EXPERIENCE
Postdoctoral Fellow (Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation)
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
2014 – Present
Advisor: Professor Matthew D. Shair
Postdoctoral Studies: Synthesis of Fluorescent Natural Product Analogs for In-Vitro Assays
 Research focused on multi-step synthesis fluorescent analogs of complex natural product and
energetics of drug•target interaction and target validation,
 Characterization key binding interactions of a drug candidate with the target in-vitro
 Used TR-FRET (HTRF), Fluorescence Polarization, Kinase Capture, western blots, and
fluorescently-labeled natural product analogs to determine IC50, Kd, Kon, and Koff of natural
product analogs
 Prepared a successful grant application to a private foundation (Damon Runyon) and led a
collaboration with Dr. Taatjes (U. Colorado, Boulder)
EDUCATION
Organic Chemistry, PhD
University of California, Irvine, CA
2009 – 2013
Advisor: Professor David L. Van Vranken
Dissertation: Harnessing the Reactivity of Palladium Carbenes.
 Applied novel reactivity of Pd carbenes for developing new C–C and C–N bond forming
reactions
 Demonstrated the use of N-tosylhydrazones as Pd(II) carbene precursors and developed a highly
efficient method for the synthesis of pyrrollidines and piperidines
 Designed and performed a mechanistic study to investigate a novel Pd(0) carbene
mechanism for the generation of dimeric pyrrolidines
 Prepared a successful grant application to a public institution (NSF)
Pharmacology, BSc with Honors
Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY
2005 – 2009
Advisor: Professor Peter J. Tonge
Dissertation: Design and Synthesis of Potent Inhibitors for Enoyl-ACP Reductase in Tuberculosis.
RESEARCH TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS
 Medicinal Chemistry: analysis of SAR and SKR studies to develop inhibitors with restrained
conformations for installation of slow-binding kinetics
 Organic Chemistry: methodology development of a Pd-catalyzed cascade sequence, mechanistic
study of metal-catalyzed reactions, and characterization of reactions from small to medium scale
(20 g), design and synthesis of multi-step reaction sequence toward natural product analogs

Biochemistry/Pharmacodynamics: development of FRET based in-vitro binding kinetics assays
for determining residence time, Kd, and IC50, along with the use of covalent kinase capture for incell target occupancy studies of lead drug candidates
 Cellular Biology: target validation, western blots, culturing and transfecting cells, transcriptional
reporter assays, and in-cell treatment with drug candidates for washout experiments of long
residence time inhibitors.
 Grant-writing: Wrote a winning oncology grant-proposal on the basis of fragment based drugdiscovery in an effort to uncover novel kinase biology.
ACADEMIC HONORS AND AWARDS
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Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellowship
2014 – Present
rd
Bayer-Lindau Fellow at 63 Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting
2013
UC Regents Dissertation Fellowship
2013
UC Irvine Service Recognition Award
2013
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
2010 – 2013
Arnold, and Mabel Beckman Undergraduate Research Fellowship
2007 – 2008
PROFESSIONAL/LEADERSHIP ACTIVITIES
Organizer of UC Irvine Chemistry Graduate Student and PostDoc Colloquium
2011 – 2013
Member of the 2013 ACS Graduate Student Symposium Planning Committee
2011 – 2012
 Organized symposium at the 2013 Spring ACS meeting: “Benchtop to Business;
Energy Solutions for a Green Future”. Fundraised more than $36,000
UC Irvine Chemistry Outreach Program
2009 – 2010
 Performed chemistry demonstrations to underprivileged students at K-12 schools
Graduate Teaching Assistant, UC Irvine
2009 – 2013
 Instructed undergraduate courses in Organic Chemistry, and Chemical Biology
Mentoring
2009 – 2013
 Served as a direct mentor to 3 undergraduates and 2 graduate students; also
founded and served on a graduate fellowship review panel
Safety
2009 – 2013
 Served as the laboratory safety coordinator and developed SOPs for over 400
chemicals and reagents to comply with EH&S and OSHA standards.
PUBLICATIONS
1. Cummings, J. E.; Beaupre, A. J.; Knudson, S. E.; Liu, N.; Yu, W.; Neckles, C.; Wang, H.; Khanna,
A.; Bommineni, G. R.; Trunck, L. A.; Schweizer, H. P.; Tonge, P. J.; Slayden, R. A. “Substituted
Diphenyl Ethers as a Novel Chemotherapeutic Platform against Burkholderia pseudomallei”
Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2014, 58, 1646–1651.
2. Khanna, A.; Premachandra, I. D. U. A.; Sung, P. D.; Van Vranken, D. L. “Palladium-Catalyzed
Catellani Aminocyclopropanation Reactions with Vinyl Halides” Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 3158–3161.
3. Khanna, A.; Premachandra, I. D. U. A.; Sung, P. D.; Van Vranken, D. L. “Palladium-Catalyzed Biscyclization/Dimerization Reactions of -Aminovinyl Halides” Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 3694–3697.
4. Chang, A.; Schiebel, J.; Yu, W.; Bommineni, G. R.; Pan, P.; Baxter, M. V.; Khanna, A.; Sotriffer,
C. A.; Kisker, C.; Tonge, P. J. “Rational optimization of drug-target residence time: Insights from
inhibitor binding to the S. aureus FabI enzyme-product complex" Biochemistry 2013, 52, 4217–
4228.
5. Khanna, A.; Maung, C.; Johnson, K. R.; Luong, T. T.; Van Vranken, D. L. “Carbenylative
Amination with N-Tosylhydrazones.” Org. Lett. 2012, 14, 3233–3235.
References Available Upon Request