Udaya Kiran Marelli

Organic Chemistry Division

About Me

I am a motivated researcher with extensive experience in the areas of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Peptides. Research work in my group shall focus on the following two aspects, with the ultimate aims in drug designing.

1. NMR and Applications: Development of NMR spectroscopy methods shall be carried out with special interest towards small molecules where we shall address the issues of insufficient 1H spectral  resolution, unambiguous assignment of relative stereochemical configurations and also to determine NMR based experimental conformations of a certain set of molecules, whose structural details otherwise are only obtained from theoretical studies.

2. Peptide Based Drug Design (PBDD) and Peptide Chemical Biology: An extensive program on peptides is underway in our research group. We shall be engaged in the development of various synthetic modification tools that can lead to distinct and unexplored conformations in peptides. These methods along with the available know how to understand as well as to improve the ADMET properties of peptides and further to develop peptide based ligands for interesting biological receptors.

Professional Experience

2015-Present, Scientist (Ad-hoc), CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune, India.

2013-2015, Postdoctoral Researcher, Technical University Munich (TUM), Garching, Germany.

2012-2013, Postdoctoral Researcher, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL),  Heidelberg, Germany.

2010-2012, Postdoctoral Researcher, Technical University Munich (TUM), Garching, Germany.

2005-2010, Ph.D. (in NMR and Peptides), CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, India.

2004-2005, Technical Trainee, Dr. Reddy's Laboratory,  Hyderabad, India.



Selected Publications

  • Shinde DR, Krishna GR And and Marelli UK, Metal-Free One-Pot Domino Synthesis of Oxazolidinethione Derivatives of Quaternary Amino Acids from ?-Amino Esters and Aldehydes Using CS2, J. Org. Chem., , (2024), DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.joc.3c02217.
  • Dangi A, Pande B, Agrawal S, Sarkar D, Vamkudoth KR And Marelli UK, Total synthesis, structure elucidation and expanded bioactivity of icosalide A: effect of lipophilicity and ester to amide substitution on its bioactivity, Org. Biomol. Chem., 21, 5725 - 5731 (2023), DOI:DOI https://doi.org/10.1039/D3OB00809F.
  • Dangi A And Marelli UK, Exploration of N?arylation of backbone amides as a novel tool for conformational modification in peptides, Chem. Eur. J., 29, (2023), DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202301803.
  • Kanungo SS, Mishra AK, Mhamane NB, Marelli UK, Kumar D And Gopinath CS, Possible Fine-Tuning of Methane Activation toward C2 Oxygenates by 3d-Transition Metal-Ions Doped Nano-Ceria-Zirconia, Inorg Chem., 61, 19577 - 19587 (2022), DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c03493.
  • Dangi A, Balmik AA, Ghorpade AK, Gorantla NV, Sonawane SK, Chinnathambi S And Marelli UK, Residue-based propensity of aggregation in the Tau amyloidogenic hexapeptides AcPHF6* and AcPHF6, RSC Adv., 10, 27331 - 27335 (2020), DOI:DOI https://doi.org/10.1039/D0RA03809A.
  • Michael Weinmüller, Rechenmacher, Udaya Kiran Marelli, Florian Reichart, Tobias G. Kapp, Andreas B. Räder, Francesco Saverio Di Leva, Luciana Marinelli, Ettore Novellino, José M. Muñoz Félix, Kairbaan Hodivala-Dilke, Adi Schumacher, Joseph Fanous, Chaim Gilon, Amnon Hoffman And Horst Kessler, Overcoming the lack of oral availability of cyclic hexapeptides: Design of a new selective and orally available ligand for the integrin avb3, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 56, 16405 - 16409 (2017), DOI:DOI:10.1002/anie.201709709.
  • Oleg V. Maltsev, Udaya Kiran Marelli, Tobias G. Kapp, Francesco Saverio Di?Leva, Salvatore Di?Maro, Markus Nieberler, Ute Reuning, Markus Schwaiger, Ettore Novellino, Luciana Marinelli And Horst Kessler, Stable Peptides Instead of Stapled Peptides: Highly Potent avb6-Selective Integrin Ligands, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 55, 1535 - 1539 (2016), DOI:10.1002/anie.201508709.
  • Udaya Kiran Marelli, Oded Ovadia, Andreas Oliver Frank, Jayanta Chatterjee, Chaim Gilon, Amnon Hoffman And Horst Kessler, Cis-peptide bonds: A key for intestinal permeability of peptides?, Chem. Eur. J., 21, 15148 - 15152 (2015), DOI:10.1002/chem.201501600.
  • Minying Cai, Udaya Kiran Marelli, Jennifer Bao, Johannes G Beck, Florian Opperer, Florian Rechenmacher, Kaitlyn R McLeod, Morgan R Zingsheim, Lucas Doedens, Horst Kessler And Victor J Hruby, Systematic Backbone Conformational Constraints on a Cyclic Melanotropin Ligand Leads to Highly Selective Ligands for Multiple Melanocortin Receptors, J. Med. Chem., 58, 6359 - 6367 (2015), DOI:10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5b00102.
  • Udaya Kiran Marelli, Jacqueline Bezençon, Eduard Puig, Beat Ernst And Horst Kessler, Enantiomeric Cyclic Peptides with Different Caco-2 Permeability Suggest Carrier-Mediated Transport, Chem. Eur. J., 21, 8023 - 8027 (2015), DOI:10.1002/chem.201501270.
  • Udaya Kiran Marelli, Andreas O Frank, Bernhard Wahl, Valeria La Pietra, Ettore Novellino, Luciana Marinelli, Eberhardt Herdtweck, Michael Groll And Horst Kessler, Receptor-Bound Conformation of Cilengitide Better Represented by Its Solution-State Structure than the Solid-State Structure, Chem. Eur. J., 20, 14201 - 14206 (2014), DOI:10.1002/chem.201403839.
  • Udaya Kiran Marelli, Florian Rechenmacher, Tariq Rashad Ali Sobahi, Carlos Mas-Moruno And Horst Kessler, Tumor targeting via integrin ligands, Front Oncol., 3, (2013), DOI:10.3389/fonc.2013.00222.
  • Alexander Bochen, Udaya Kiran Marelli, Elke Otto, Diego Pallarola, Carlos Mas-Moruno, Francesco Saverio Di Leva, Heike Boehm, Joachim P Spatz, Ettore Novellino, Horst Kessler And Luciana Marinelli, Biselectivity of isoDGR peptides for fibronectin binding integrin subtypes a5b1 and avb6: conformational control through flanking amino acids, J. Med. Chem., 4, 1509 - 1519 (2013), DOI:10.1021/jm301221x.
  • Sai Chaitanya Chiliveri, Sonu Kumar, Udaya Kiran Marelli And Mandar V Deshmukh, Backbone and sidechain methyl Ile (d1), Leu and Val chemical shift assignments of RDE-4 (1–243), an RNA interference initiation protein in C. elegans, Biomol. NMR Assign., 6, 143 - 146 (2012), DOI:10.1007/s12104-011-9343-0.
  • Srivari Chandrasekhar, Nayani Kiranmai, Marelli Udaya Kiran, Ambure Sharada Devi, Gangireddy Pavan Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Idris And Bharatam Jagadeesh, Novel helical foldamers: organized heterogeneous backbone folding in 1: 1 a/nucleoside-derived-b-amino acid sequences, Chem. Commun., 46, 6962 - 6964 (2010), DOI:10.1039/C0CC01724H.
  • Bharatam Jagadeesh, Marelli Udaya Kiran, Ambadi Sudhakar And Srivari Chandrasekhar, Backbone Regulation Mimicry by b-Peptidic Foldamers: Formation of a 10-Helix in a Mixed 6-Strand/14-Helix Conformational Pool, Chem. Eur. J., 15, 12592 - 12595 (2009), DOI:10.1002/chem.200902332.
  • Grit Kummerlöwe, Marelli Udaya Kiran And Burkhard Luy, Covalently Cross-linked Gelatin Allows Chiral Distinction at Elevated Temperatures and in DMSO, Chem. Eur. J., 15, 12192 - 12195 (2009), DOI:10.1002/chem.200902193.
  • Marelli Udaya Kiran, Ambadi Sudhakar, Jochen Klages, Grit Kummerlo?we, Burkhard Luy And Bharatam Jagadeesh, RDC enhanced NMR spectroscopy in organic solvent media: the importance for the experimental determination of periodic hydrogen bonded secondary structures, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 131, 15590 - 15591 (2009), DOI:10.1021/ja906796v.
  • S Chandrasekhar, G Pavan Kumar Reddy, M Udaya Kiran, Ch Nagesh And B Jagadeesh, Nucleoside derived amino acids (NDA) in foldamer chemistry: synthesis and conformational studies of homooligomers of modified AZT, Tet. Lett., 49, 2969 - 2973 (2008), DOI:10.1016/j.tetlet.2008.03.001.

Research Interest

Contact Details

Dr. Udaya Kiran Marelli
Scientist (Ad-hoc)
Room 101, Central NMR Facility
CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (NCL)
Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pashan
Pune 411008, Maharashtra, India.
Ph: +91 20 2590 2563