Turning dreams into reality
7/21/2008 11:21:23 AM
Sanat Mandal is living his dream of making a difference in people’s lives. He makes this dream a reality each and every day through his breast cancer research.
Mandal, originally from Kolkata, India, divides his time conducting cancer research and working with College of the North Atlantic (CNA) as an instructor of Academic Chemistry.
“I have been working in multidisciplinary research, which includes a breast cancer drug design,” says Mandal.
“I am currently working on a drug design based from the gene expression data I have developed. Target sites of drug interaction for this class of compounds are unknown but the purpose of the gene expression study is to identify targets for further improvement of drug specificity.”
He says cancer is one of the most deadly diseases – making treatment as well as its eradication very challenging.
“The realm of drug design is an equally demanding field of research. To beat and eradicate cancer, modern methods of treatment are essential.”
He says development of these drugs requires background in modern technologies including genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics.
“Besides this knowledge on the determination of the drug bound 3D structure of the target, knowledge about the structure-activity relationship, molecular modelling, and docking tools is also essential. This diversity of knowledge will allow the development of novel drugs by addressing key pressing issues such as the status of drug resistance, immune responsive genes, genes responsible for drug toxicity, and metabolism.”
Mandal has been with the college for 12 years, first at Carbonear campus and now at Clarenville, where he has been stationed since 1997.
While he divides his time living in Clarenville and St. John’s, Mandal says CNA has hugely supported him in his research.
“I was on leave for one year from September 2006 to August 2007. In September 2007, I resumed my duties in Clarenville campus but I am grateful to our college for supporting my professional development leave that has allowed me to develop new skills and expertise, to publish two articles, and has provided me the opportunity to review several articles for international journals as an invited reviewer.”
To date, Mandal has had 56 papers published in different fields, including breast cancer drug design.
“Besides teaching, I perform experiments and write articles. One of the articles has been accepted for publication in Bioorganic Medicinal Chemistry Letters. I am writing several other articles for publication and I have been collaborating with several scientific groups,” he continues.
He says to get his work published he normally submits work to peer reviewed international journals. The editor of the journal makes the final decision based on the reviewers' comments, but Mandal has also been invited to write articles as well present in international conferences.
“I feel privileged that our college has been very supportive to allow me to explore my inquisitive search. Hopefully and soon, I will be able to reach my goal, which is to develop target-specific breast cancer drugs. I have been working in a number of research fields besides breast cancer drug design and am developing a patentable breast cancer drug,” he concludes.
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For more information contact:
Glenda McCarthy
Public Relations Assistant
College of the North Atlantic
(709) 643-6408
glenda.mccarthy@cna.nl.ca