Pathum Weerawarna, PhD

Bio

Dr. Pathum Weerawarna is an experienced researcher in the medicinal chemistry field. He has conducted many successful early drug discovery research projects that involved target-based and phenotype-based drug-discovery approaches. These research projects focused on finding novel therapeutics and tackled essential questions related to infectious diseases and neurological disorders.

Dr. Weerwarna received a PhD in Chemistry (2016) from Wichita State University. His doctoral work mainly focused on the structure-guided design, synthesis, and evaluation of macrocyclic and dipeptidyl inhibitors of norovirus 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (3CL^pro). He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University, Department of Chemistry, under the mentorship of Prof. Richard B Silverman. As a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Weerawarna conducted theoretical and mechanistic studies to understand the inactivation mechanism of GABA-AT by two of the leading mechanism-based inactivators (MBIs), CPP-115 and OV329, discovered by the Silverman group. These two drugs are currently under pre-clinical studies as potential therapeutics for treating epilepsy and addiction. He was also involved in a target deconvolution research project related to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), where he conducted photoaffinity labeling experiments to identify the biological targets of a lead neuroprotective compound.

Dr. Weerawarna joined the Indiana University School of Medicine in early 2022 as an Assitant Research Professor in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology. He is a member of the IUSM-Purdue TREAT-AD Center, where his research is mainly focused on conducting target-based drug discovery research to develop small molecule inhibitors of kinases as a potential treatment for Alzheimer's Disease.

Key Publications

Weerawarna, P. M.; Moschitto, M. J.; Silverman, R. B. Theoretical and Mechanistic Validation of Global Kinetic Parameters of the Inactivation of GABA Aminotransferase by OV329 and CPP-115. ACS Chem. Biol. 2021,.

Juncosa, J. I.; Takaya, K.; Le, H. V.; Moschitto, M. J.; Weerawarna, P. M.; Mascarenhas, R.; Liu, D.; Dewey, S. L.; Silverman, R. B. Design and Mechanism of ( S )-3-Amino-4-(Difluoromethylenyl)Cyclopent-1-Ene-1-Carboxylic Acid, a Highly Potent γ-Aminobutyric Acid Aminotransferase Inactivator for the Treatment of Addiction. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140 (6), 2151–2164. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.7b10965.

Weerawarna, P. M.; Kim, Y.; Galasiti Kankanamalage, A. C.; Damalanka, V. C.; Lushington, G. H.; Alliston, K. R.; Mehzabeen, N.; Battaile, K. P.; Lovell, S.; Chang, K.-O.; Groutas, W. C. Structure-Based Design and Synthesis of Triazole-Based Macrocyclic Inhibitors of Norovirus Protease: Structural, Biochemical, Spectroscopic, and Antiviral Studies. Eur. J. Med. Chem. 2016, 119, 300–318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmech.2016.04.013.

Mandadapu, S. R.; Weerawarna, P. M.; Prior, A. M.; Uy, R. A. Z.; Aravapalli, S.; Alliston, K. R.; Lushington, G. H.; Kim, Y.; Hua, D. H.; Chang, K.-O.; Groutas, W. C. Macrocyclic Inhibitors of 3C and 3C-like Proteases of Picornavirus, Norovirus, and Coronavirus. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2013, 23 (13), 3709–3712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bmcl.2013.05.021.

Full List of Publications

Link:  https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cnxlU1IAAAAJ&hl=en