Biography

Samarjit Patnaik, Ph.D., is a research scientist in the Chemistry Technology program within NCATS’ Division of Preclinical Innovation, where he works on a chemistry team led by Juan J. Marugan, Ph.D. Patnaik focuses primarily on developing drug-like small molecule probes, mostly derived from high-throughput screening hits, to interrogate novel targets and pathways in cellular and animal disease models with a focus on rare and neglected diseases. He also devises chemical tools that facilitate target deconvolution from phenotypic assays. His work has led to the out-licensing of a class of noninhibitory chaperones for glucocerbrosidase as a prospective therapy for Gaucher disease and the initiation of a collaboration with the National Cancer Institute’s Experimental Therapeutics program for the preclinical development of perinucleolar compartment inhibitors as agents against cancer metastasis.

Before joining NIH in 2009 and subsequently coming to NCATS, Patnaik worked in the Oncology Medicinal Chemistry Division at GlaxoSmithKline, where his team developed the preclinical candidate GSK1838705A as a dual insulin growth factor-1 receptor/anaplastic lymphoma kinase inhibitor.

Patnaik earned his Bachelor of Science in chemistry from St. Stephen’s College in Delhi, India, and his Bachelor of Arts in natural sciences from Cambridge University. He earned his doctorate in organic chemistry at Indiana University.

Research Topics

• Lysosomal storage disorders (Gaucher, Niemann-Pick type C, mucolipidosis type IV)
• Cancer (Eya2/Six1, perinucleolar compartment)
• Ion channels: TRPV1 (pain), TRPML1 (lysosomal storage disorder ML4)
• G-protein coupled receptor (neuropeptide S receptor, addiction)