Manasa Punaha Ravindra is a Maplethorpe Research and Teaching Fellow in the Rahman Lab, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, King’s College London. She graduated in Pharmacy in Hyderabad, India, in 2010, and completed an integrated PhD at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, in 2018 under the supervision of Professor Aleem Gangjee. Her doctoral research focused on the design and synthesis of antifolates for tumour-targeted therapies.
Following her PhD, she undertook postdoctoral work at the University of Edinburgh and later at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, contributing to preclinical anticancer drug development. In September 2024, she joined King’s College London as a Maplethorpe Fellow, where she is expanding her research to infectious diseases, with a primary focus on antimalarial drug discovery. Her expertise spans synthetic medicinal chemistry, structure-based drug design, and translational pharmacology. She also contributes to teaching in the Department and supports postgraduate training. Her long-term research interests lie at the interface of chemical biology and therapeutic innovation.