Ramachandra S. Hosmane

Ramachandra "(Ram)" S. Hosmane (1944-)^[1] is a retired Senior Professor of Organic Chemistry at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Dr. Hosmane has over 160 peer-reviewed research publications in reputed international journals.^[2] He holds seven U.S. and World patents,^[3] some of which have been licensed to industries. His contributions to the field of Organic Chemistry and medicinal chemistry are notable. He has trained well over 100 undergraduate students, 30 graduate students, and 20 postdoctoral fellows and visiting scientists in his laboratory. His current research focus is on drug discovery for dual inhibition of HCV and HIV as well as lung, breast, and prostate cancers.

Early life

Ram Hosmane was born in Gokarna, Uttara Kannada, India and completed Bhadrakali High School, Gokarna. In 1966, he earned a B.Sc in Chemistry from Karnataka University, Dharwar, followed by a M.Sc. degree in Organic Chemistry from the same institution in 1968.

Career

Hosmane moved to the United States in the early 1970s to pursue a doctoral degree in organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry at the University of South Florida, where he earned M.S. (1976) and Ph.D. degrees (1978). After completing his postdoctoral training (1979–82) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Hosmane joined UMBC as an assistant professor in 1982 and was promoted to associate professor with academic tenure in 1986. He was promoted to the rank of full professor in 1994.

His research work has been supported by about 50 grants from federal and state agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS),^[4] and private foundations such as the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, and the Petroleum Research Fund^[5] as well as a variety of industrial sources. He has contributed significantly to the development of organic and medicinal chemistry.

Hosmane was awarded the Presidential Teaching Professorship for years 2009–2012 from UMBC.^[6] He was earlier recognized as the Maryland Chemist of the Year ^[7] by the American Chemical Society, Maryland Division,^[8] in 2002. In 2001, he was awarded the Outstanding Educator of the Year Award from the Maryland Association for Higher Education (MAHE).^[9] He was also honored as the University Presidential Research Professor for 1998–2001.^[10] In 1996, he was recognized as Outstanding Mentor of Project SEED of the American Chemical Society.^[11] In 1999, he was given honorary faculty membership in the Golden Key International Honour Society.^[12] He has been a consistent member of the NIH Scientific Review Groups,^[13] serving on a wide variety of NIH grant review panels generally referred to as Study Sections. He is also a reviewer for U.S.Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s intramural scientific programs.

Two major research areas of Hosmane include blood substitutes based on hemoglobins and the discovery of antiviral and anticancer compounds based on ring-expanded nucleoside structures.^[14] The compounds synthesized in his laboratory have shown potent activities against a wide variety of viruses and cancers, including the hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) viruses, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the West Nile virus (WNV), the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), the measles virus, the rhinovirus, the varicella zoster virus (VZV), Epstein–Barr virus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza viruses A & B, herpes simplex viruses as well as prostate cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, and leukemia. His current research focus is on drug discovery for dual inhibition of HCV and HIV as well as lung, breast, and prostate cancers.

Hosmane is a Managing Editor, Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry; Frontiers in Bioscience^[15][16] Regional Editor, Molecules.^[17] He acted as peer reviewer for^[18]NIH, NSF, American Heart Association, Research Corporation, Guggenheim Foundation; Journals: JACS, JOC, Tet. Lett., J.Het.Chem., J. Med. Chem., Synthesis, Chem. Ber., Liebigs Ann. Chem., Nucleosides & Nucleotides, Nucl. Acids Res., J. Biomol.Struct. Dyn., Tetrahedron, Angewandte Chemie, Eur. J. Org. Chem., Hemoglobin, Bioorg. Med. Chem., Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett.

He is a member of Sigma Xi; Affiliate IUPAC, Am. Chem. Soc., Chem. Soc.(London), Internat. Soc. Heterocycl. Chem., Internat. Soc. Antiviral Research, and American Assoc. Adv. Science.

Dr. Hosmane is married to Raji. They have one daughter Mala.

References