Senior Research Fellow in Computational and Molecular Pharmacology
College of Medicine and Public Health
Dr. Nair is a pharmacist by training and a pharmaceutical scientist with >15 years of research experience in pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences. His research interests include computational medicinal chemistry, structural biology, experimental pharmacology, and pharmacogenomics. His research focuses on preclinical studies including drug lead identification and optimization, drug metabolism, and personalised medicine. His research supports the development of novel therapeutics for various drug targets in neuropsychiatric disorders and cancer.
Dr. Nair is a Senior Research Fellow in Clinical Pharmacology and leads the Computational and Molecular Pharmacology laboratory at the College of Medicine and Public Health. His current research focuses on understanding new drug targets for schizophrenia and related disorders, especially from a structural, genetic, and pharmacological perspective. His research has been published in high-quality basic and applied science journals including first-authored publications in Nature Communications, Molecular Psychiatry, Journal of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology. He has also published high-quality invited review articles in Trends in Molecular Medicine, Physiological Reviews, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science.
Dr. Nair obtained a Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences with Distinction at the University of Mumbai (Bombay College of Pharmacy) India, in 2005. He completed his Masters of Science (Pharm.) at the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) India, where he also worked as a Junior Research Fellow. He received the Australian government-funded Endeavour IPRS fellowship in 2009 and undertook PhD studies with Professor Alan Mark at the School of Chemistry & Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland. In 2012 he joined the Department of Clinical Pharmacology as a Postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Professor John Miners and Professor Ross McKinnon.
PhD (Med. Chem.) The University of Queensland, Australia 2009-2013.
M.S. (Pharm.) National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), India 2005-2007.
B. Pharm.(Distinction) Bombay College of Pharmacy, University of Mumbai, India 2001-2005.
2024 Featured in Trends in Molecular Medicine (TrendsTalk) - Science around the world.
2024 Innovation Partnership Seed Grant, $75,000, (Chief Investigator A, CIA).
2024-2026 National Health and Medical Research Council Ideas Grant, $755,276, CID.
2023 Emerging Leaders Showcase - Mid Career Academic Best Talk Prize (Runner Up) $500.
2023 Building Research Leaders Award (Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences (Adelaide Medical School)), $35,000, CIA.
2023 Oracle for Research Project Award, value $34,000, CIA.
2021-2022 Oracle for Research, value $75,000, CIA.
2021-2024 Medical Research Future Fund - Stem Cell Therapies Mission, $853,274, CIF.
2021-2022 Pipeline Accelerator, Australian Translational Medicinal Chemistry Facility, $53,750, CIB.
2020-2021 Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute (FHMRI), Early Career Research Kickstart grant $20,800, CIA.
2018 CERTARA New Investigator Award (Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists)
2017 Flinders University Vice-Chancellor's Award for Early Career Researchers
2017 Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer, Flinders Medical Centre (FMC) Foundation, Early Career Research Grant $16,500, CIA.
2017 Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (Flinders University), Early Career Research Grant $15,000, CIA.
2016 Flinders Medical Centre (FMC) Foundation Grant, $18,000, CIE.
2012-2016 Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Flinders University (Australia).
2013 Travel Grant from Adelaide Pharmacology Group (APG) for ASCEPT, Annual General Meeting.
2010 Visiting Scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich (Switzerland).
2010 Course Grant for the 8th Swiss National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Structural Biology Course (Switzerland).
2009-2012 Australian Government funded Endeavour International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS) (Australia).
2009-2012 University of Queensland Research Scholarship (UQRS) (Australia).
2009 Top up Scholarship, The University of Queensland (Australia).
2009 Establishment Grant, The University of Queensland (Australia).
2007-2009 Junior Research Fellowship, NIPER (India).
2004 Sir Ratan TATA merit scholarship for academic excellence (India).
Professional Memberships and Associations
External Professional Activities
Reviewer