Sesha Sridevi Alluri (salluri)

Sesha Sridevi Alluri

Senior Lecturer

Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering and Science

Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology

McLean Hall 315
(201) 216-8196

Education

  • PhD (2010) Stevens Institute of Technology (Chemistry )
  • MS (2007) Stevens Institute of Technology (Chemistry)

Research

I. Design and Synthesis of Novel Analogs of antiviral drug, molnupiravir.

Molnupiravir is an anti-influenza experimental drug that has been granted Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA for the treatment of COVID-19. Molnupiravir is a nucleoside analogue that inhibits viral replication through RNA mutagenesis by targeting the enzyme RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). The focus of the present work is to investigate into different strategies for the synthesis of novel analogs of molnupiravir. These novel analogs will have structural changes made to the uracil moiety as well as the side chain. The analogs will be evaluated for their antiviral activities.


I. Development of Novel Antibiotics Effective against Resistant Bacteria
This project focuses on developing novel antibiotics active particularly against resistant organisms. These novel compounds are designed based on the structure of a highly potent cyclic peptide antibiotic, Lugdunin, isolated from Staphylococcus lugdunensis strains in human nasal commensals. Lugdunin was found to be highly potent against Gram-positive organisms, particularly difficult to treat methicillin-resistant S. aureus and vancomycin-resistant Enterococci strains. The focus of the present study is to establish a practical synthesis of Lugdunin which will be a guide to synthesize various analogs. Novel analogs of cyclic peptide antibiotics were synthesized using solid phase peptide synthesis.



Areas of specialty: Medicinal Chemistry, Organic Synthesis, Structure-based drug design

Institutional Service

  • Undergraduate Education committee Member
  • CCB Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) committee Member
  • Lecturer Search Committee Member
  • Undergraduate Education committee Member
  • Research & Infrastructure committee Member
  • Undergraduate Education Committee Member

Appointments

Senior Lecturer

Professional Societies

  • ACS – American Chemical Society Member
  • ACS – American Chemical Society Member
  • ACS – American chemical society Member

Grants, Contracts and Funds

NJ Opportunity Meets Innovation Challenge Grant

Patents and Inventions

Triazine compounds and their analogs, compositions, and methods. U.S. Patent 7335770 (2008)

Design and Synthesis of a Novel Class of HIV Protease Inhibitors. U.S. Patent 8,283,346 B2 (2012)

Selected Publications

Book

  1. Alluri, S. (2021). Medicinal Chemistry. A Look at How Drugs Are Discovered. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group.
    https://www.routledge.com/Medicinal-Chemistry-A-Look-at-How-Drugs-Are-Discovered/Ganguly-Alluri/p/book/9781032017532.

Courses

CH243 Organic Chemistry I
CH245 Organic Chemistry Lab
CH115 General Chemistry I
CH116 General Chemistry II
CH685 Medicinal Chemistry
CH642 Synthetic Organic Chemistry