Hello, I'm Abhishek Saha, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor 

Department of Chemistry

Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani) | Hyderabad Campus | India



BITS website:

https://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/hyderabad/dr-abhishek-saha/


Social Media

Abhishek Saha was born in West Bengal, India. Abhishek received his M.Sc. in organic chemistry in 2014 with a distinguished silver medal from the University of North Bengal, India. Abhishek obtained his Ph.D. under Prof. Debasis Manna in 2020 from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT-G), India. In the same year, Abhishek joined as a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Ashraf Brik’s laboratory, the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel. His research was focused on modulating the activities of biologically relevant proteins and enzymes for developing new drug molecules for cancer and other diseases, as well as developing new cell-penetrating peptides for live cell delivery of synthetic proteins. In 2024, Abhishek joined the department of chemistry at Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani at the Hyderabad campus as an assistant professor. His independent research lab is focused on exploring and understanding THE ART OF INTRACELLULAR CHEMICAL DELIVERY (AICD).

EDUCATION 

Ph.D. (under the supervision of Prof. D. Manna)

Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati (India), 2015–2020.

M.Sc. Chemistry (Organic chemistry specialization)

University of North Bengal, Siliguri, WB (India), 2012–2014.

B.Sc. Chemistry (Hons.)

Achariya Brajendra Nath Seal College, Cooch Behar, West Bengal (India)

then affiliated to University of North Bengal, 2009–2012.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCES

Assistant Professor

BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus, April 2024–Present

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow 

Chemical biology lab, under the supervision of Prof. Ashraf Brik

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Israel), August 2020–March 2024

Doctoral Fellow 

Biological chemistry lab, under the supervision of Prof. Debasis Manna

Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati (India), December 2014–October 2020.

Project Fellow 

Organic chemistry lab, under the supervision of Prof. Basudeb Basu

University of North Bengal, Siliguri (India), March 2014–May 2014

Project Fellow 

Organic chemistry lab, under the supervision of Prof. Sajal Das

University of North Bengal, Siliguri (India), March 2013–May 2013


FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS, & GRANTS

  • ANRF-ARG (Govt. of India) as Co-PI, jointly 61 lakh, Approved (2025), 36 months
  • ANRF-PMECRG (Govt. of India), 44.04 lakh (2025)
  • New Faculty Seed Grant (BITS-Pilani), NFSG/Phase-4, 20 lakh (2025)
  • Awarded Best Poster Prize in ChemConvene, IIT Guwahati, Assam, India (2017)
  • Awarded RSC Best Poster Prize in 19th Chemical Research Society of India-National Symposium in Chemistry, University of North Bengal, India (2016)
  • Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, India (2016–2019)
  • Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, India (2014–2016)
  • Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) in Chemistry (2014)
  • Certificate of Excellence and Silver Medal for First Class Second in M.Sc. (Chemistry), University of North Bengal, India (2014)
  • Conferred with the Prof. Mihir Chowdhury Memorial Award from Achariya Brajendra Nath Seal College, West Bengal, India (2012)
  • Awarded West Bengal State Government Merit-cum-Means Scholarship (graduation and post-graduation), India (2009–201 

TEACHING

  • Organic Chemistry-I (CHEM F212), M.Sc. (L1 and T1) @BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad campus, 2025
  • Organic Chemistry-IV (CHEM F342), M.Sc. (L1 and T1) @BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad campus, 2025, 2026
  • Fundamentals of Chemistry (CHEM F101), FD (T3) @BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad campus, 2025
  • General Chemistry (CHEM F111), FD @BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad campus, 2024 (T6), 2025 (L1 and T1)
  • Chemistry Laboratory (CHEM F110), FD  @BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad campus, 2024 (P3 & P4), 2025 (P3)
  • Teaching Assistant @Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati (2016–2019)


ARTICLES REVIEWED

  • Review activity for ACS Omega (2026)
  • Review activity for JKSU-Science (2026), 2 articles
  • Review activity for ACS Omega (2025)
  • Review activity for Nature Communications (2024)
  • Review activity for Nature Chemical Biology (2023)

 MEMBER OF

  • American Peptide Society (APS)
  • Israel Chemical Society (ICS)
  • Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI), Lifetime
  • Biophysical Society Deccan, India
  • Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Association (AMIEE), Lifetime
  • Society for Materials Chemistry (SMC), Lifetime

INVITED LECTURES/ PRESENTATIONS

  • “Breaking the Barrier: Exocyclic Engineering for Improving Intracellular Delivery of Cyclic Peptides” Date of Presentation: 2026-02-27, organised by the Department of Chemistry, NIT-Warangal, Telangana; event: “International Conference on Organic Synthesis and Advanced Materials (IC-OSAM-2026)”, held on 26th - 28th Feb 2026
  • “Breaking the Barrier: Exocyclic Engineering for Improving Intracellular Delivery of Cyclic Peptides” Date of Presentation: 2026-02-11, organised by the Department of Chemistry, Woxsen University, Hyderabad; event: “2nd International Conference on Frontier Innovations in Chemistry & Engineering (InnoChem-2026)”, held on 10th - 13th Feb 2026.
  • Participation in “33rd CRSI National Symposium in Chemistry and CRSI-ACS Lectures” on 4-6th July 2024 organized by Dr. Reddy's Laboratory, Hyderabad, India. https://crsidrl.com/index.php
  • "The Art of Intracellular Chemical Delivery"; Date of Presentation: 2024–04–30 organised by the Department of Chemical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai; event: “FUTURE OF CHEMISTRY" 15th Symposium in SYMPOSIUM SERISE (Invited lecture).
  • Prticipated in "Functions and pathological dysfunctions of RNA and proteins ICS Symposium Honoring Wolf Prize Laureates Chuan He, Jeffrey W. Kelly, and Hiroaki Suga" on June 14, 2023, The David Lopatie Conference Centre, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
  • Participated in "Frontiers in Organic Synthesis and Catalysis Celebrating Ilan Marek’s 60th Birthday" on May 14-15, 2023 at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology | Haifa Schulich Faculty of Chemistry  |  Hall 1, Haifa, Israel.
  • Prticipated in "The 11th Asian-European Symposium on Metal-Mediated Organic Synthesis" on Feb 6-8, 2023 at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology | Haifa Schulich Faculty of Chemistry  |  Hall 1, Haifa, Israel.
  • Title: “Recent Developments in Nanoparticle–Based Therapeutic Approaches for COVID–19”; Category of Event: International (within country) Date of Presentation: 2021-08-05 Alipurduar University, West Bengal, India on "INTERNATIONAL WEB-BASED CONFERENCE -COVID-19 CONSEQUENCES AND CHALLENGES" (Invited lecture).
  • "Selective Macrocyclic Peptide Modulators of K63-linked Ubiquitin Chains Disrupt DNA Damage Repair“ 86th Annual Meeting of the Israel Chemical Society (ICS) 2022” on 12–13th September 2022, organized by Israel Chemical Society, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
  • Title: “Applications of Nanoparticles in Anticancer Drug Delivery”; Category of Event: International (within country) Date of Presentation: 2021–06–24 ACHARYA B. N. SEAL COLLEGE, COOCH BEHAR, INTERNATIONAL WEB-BASED CONFERENCE ON “INTRODUCTION TO NANO CHEMISTRY: APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES” (Invited lecture)
  • Fatty-Amine-Conjugated Cationic Bovine Serum Albumin Nanoparticles for Target-Specific Hydrophobic Drug Delivery Category of Event: International (within country) Date of Presentation: 2019–11–05, BISWA BANGLA CONVENTION CENTER (KOLKATA), "INDIA INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE FESTIVAL 2019"
  • ​Fatty-Amine-Conjugated Cationic Bovine Serum Albumin Nanoparticles for Target-Specific Hydrophobic Drug Delivery Category of Event: International (within country) Date of Presentation: 2019–03–14 IIT GUWAHATI ON RESEARCH CONCLAVE'19 (Oral & Poster)
  • ​"pH-Regulated anion transport activities of bis(iminourea) derivatives across the cell and vesicle membrane Category": National Date of Presentation: 2019-02-28 IIT BOMBAY" IIT-BOMBAY DIAMOND JUBILEE CHEMISTRY SYMPOSIUM.
  • Rapid synthesis of phosphonate bioisostere containing amphiphiles - A new class of squareamide-based lipids Category of Event: National Date of Presentation: 2016–07–14 Department of chemistry, University of North Bengal on "19th CRSI NATIONAL SYMPOSIUM IN CHEMISTRY (RSC Award for Best Poster Presentation)
  • Azidophosphonate Chemistry as a Route for a Novel Class of Vesicle Forming Phosphonolipids Category of Event: National Date of Presentation: 2016–12–08 to 2016–12–10, IIT GUWAHATI ON “FICS–2016”
  • Azidophosphonate Chemistry as a Route for a Novel Class of Vesicle Forming Phosphonolipids Category of Event: National Date of Presentation: 2017–07–25 IIT GUWAHATI ON CHEMCONVENE (Best Poster Presentation Award)
  • Participation in “The 5th Asian Conference on Colloid and Interface Science” on 28th February 2013 organized by ACS and Department of Chemistry, University of North Bengal, WB, India.
  • Participation in UGC-Sponsored National Seminar on “Frontiers in Chemistry” on 11–12th March, 2014, organized by Department of Chemistry, University of North Bengal, WB, India.