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Dr Rajesh Kuppusamy
Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr Rajesh Kuppusamy

 

Medicine & Health
School of Optometry and Vision Science

I am a dynamic and innovative researcher, currently pursuing the development of new antibiotics, antivirals, and disinfectants to tackle community and hospital-acquired infections. 

Throughout my vast experience in industry and academia, I have developed many novel compounds used to treat important human diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and bacterial infections. I am passionate about med chem research projects, training new researchers, and translating research into new products, and want to contribute my research for the benefit of working organisations and society.  
E-mail
r.kuppusamy@unsw.edu.au
  • Journal articles | 2023
    Willcox MDP; Bahatheg G; Carnt N; Kalaiselvan P; Kumar N; Kuppusamy R; Rayamajhee B; Sara M; Stapleton F; Vijay AK; Yasir M; Yu TT, 2023, 'Biofilms and contact lenses: problems and solutions', Microbiology Australia, http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/ma23027
    Journal articles | 2023
    2023, 'Novel quinazolinone disulfide analogues as pqs quorum sensing inhibitors against Pseudomonas aeruginosa', Bioorganic Chemistry, 130, pp. 106226, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bioorg.2022.106226
    Journal articles | 2023
    2023, 'Ocular signs and symptoms of monkeypox virus infection, and possible role of the eye in transmission of the virus', Contact Lens and Anterior Eye, 46, pp. 101808, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clae.2022.101808
    Journal articles | 2023
    2023, 'Transition Towards Antibiotic Hybrid Vehicles: The Next Generation Antibacterials', Current Medicinal Chemistry, 30, pp. 104 - 125, http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/0929867329666220613105424
    Journal articles | 2023
    2023, 'Tuning the Anthranilamide Peptidomimetic Design to Selectively Target Planktonic Bacteria and Biofilm', Antibiotics, 12, pp. 585 - 585, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12030585
    Journal articles | 2022
    2022, 'Ability of Essential Oil Vapours to Reduce Numbers of Culturable Aerosolised Coronavirus, Bacteria and Fungi', Antibiotics, 11, pp. 393 - 393, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics11030393
    Journal articles | 2022
    2022, 'Antimicrobial activity of RK-7 peptide mimic against Staphylococcus aureus in solution and when immobilised onto contact lenses', Contact Lens and Anterior Eye, 45, pp. 101607 - 101607, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clae.2022.101607
    Journal articles | 2022
    2022, 'Bioinspired Polydopamine Coatings Facilitate Attachment of Antimicrobial Peptidomimetics with Broad-Spectrum Antibacterial Activity', International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23, pp. 2952 - 2952, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms23062952
    Journal articles | 2022
    2022, 'Cholic Acid-Based Antimicrobial Peptide Mimics as Antibacterial Agents', International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms23094623
    Journal articles | 2022
    2022, 'Hydrogels with intrinsic antibacterial activity prepared from naphthyl anthranilamide (NaA) capped peptide mimics', Scientific Reports, 12, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26426-1
    Journal articles | 2022
    2022, 'Short Tryptamine-Based Peptoids as Potential Therapeutics for Microbial Keratitis: Structure-Function Correlation Studies', Antibiotics, 11, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics11081074
    Journal articles | 2022
    2022, 'The Anti-Amoebic Activity of a Peptidomimetic against Acanthamoeba castellanii', Microorganisms, 10, pp. 2377, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10122377
    Journal articles | 2021
    2021, 'Antibacterial peptidomimetic and characterization of its efficacy as an antibacterial and biocompatible coating for bioceramic-based bone substitutes', Materials Advances, 2, pp. 6369 - 6379, http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d1ma00648g
    Journal articles | 2021
    2021, 'Novel seleno-and thio-urea-containing dihydropyrrol-2-one analogues as antibacterial agents', Antibiotics, 10, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10030321
    Journal articles | 2021
    2021, 'Polyphenylglyoxamide‐based amphiphilic small molecular peptidomimetics as antibacterial agents with anti‐biofilm activity', International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 22, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms22147344
    Journal articles | 2021
    2021, 'The role of nitric oxide in ocular surface physiology and pathophysiology', Ocular Surface, 21, pp. 37 - 51, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtos.2021.04.007
    Journal articles | 2020
    Yasir M; Dutta D; Hossain KR; Chen R; Ho KKK; Kuppusamy R; Clarke RJ; Kumar N; Willcox MDP, 2020, 'Mechanism of Action of Surface Immobilized Antimicrobial Peptides Against Pseudomonas aeruginosa', Frontiers in Microbiology, 10, http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.03053
    Journal articles | 2020
    2020, 'A facile synthesis of meta- and para-terphenylglyoxamide-based peptidomimetics', Tetrahedron Letters, 61, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tetlet.2020.152560
    Journal articles | 2020
    2020, 'Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of biphenylglyoxamide-based small molecular antimicrobial peptide mimics as antibacterial agents', International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 21, pp. 1 - 38, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms21186789
    Journal articles | 2019
    2019, 'Short cationic peptidomimetic antimicrobials', Antibiotics, 8, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics8020044
    Journal articles | 2018
    Kuppusamy R; Yasir M; Berry T; Cranfield CG; Nizalapur S; Yee E; Kimyon O; Taunk A; Ho KK K; Cornell B; Manefield M; Willcox M; Black DS C; Kumar N, 2018, 'Design and synthesis of short amphiphilic cationic peptidomimetics based on biphenyl backbone as antibacterial agents', European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 143, pp. 1702 - 1722, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmech.2017.10.066
    Journal articles | 2018
    Kuppusamy R; Yasir M; Yee E; Willcox M; Black DS C; Kumar N, 2018, 'Guanidine functionalized anthranilamides as effective antibacterials with biofilm disruption activity', Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 16, pp. 5871 - 5888, http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c8ob01699b
    Journal articles | 2016
    Chittimalla SK; Koodalingam M; Bandi C; Putturu S; Kuppusamy R, 2016, 'Expedient Baylis-Hillman reaction protocol to functionalize cyclohexa-2,4-dienones', RSC Advances, 6, pp. 1460 - 1465, http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c5ra21842j
    Journal articles | 2015
    Chittimalla SK; Laxmi S; Ming Liing AC; Kai Jun JL; Kuppusamy R; Putturu S; Bandi C, 2015, 'An approach towards expanding the scope of masked o-benzoquinone dimers to generate diverse compound libraries', RSC Advances, 5, pp. 29391 - 29396, http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c5ra03627e
    Journal articles | 2015
    Devasthale P; Wang W; Mignone J; Renduchintala K; Radhakrishnan S; Dhanapal J; Selvaraj J; Kuppusamy R; Pelleymounter MA; Longhi D; Huang N; Flynn N; Azzara AV; Rohrbach K; Devenny J; Rooney S; Thomas M; Glick S; Godonis H; Harvey S; Cullen MJ; Zhang H; Caporuscio C; Stetsko P; Grubb M; Huang C; Zhang L; Freeden C; Murphy BJ; Robl JA; Washburn WN, 2015, 'Non-basic azolotriazinone MCHR1 antagonists for the treatment of obesity: An empirical brain-exposures-driven candidate selection for in vivo efficacy studies', Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 25, pp. 4412 - 4418, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bmcl.2015.09.018
    Journal articles | 2015
    2015, 'Palladium-catalyzed regioselective synthesis of oxygenated biphenyls', Synlett, 26, pp. 613 - 618, http://dx.doi.org/10.1055/s-0034-1379987
    Journal articles | 2014
    Chittimalla SK; Bandi C; Putturu S; Kuppusamy R; Boellaard KC; Tan DC A; Lum DM J, 2014, 'Access to 3-arylindoles through a tandem one-pot protocol involving dearomatization, a regioselective michael addition reaction, and rearomatization', European Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2014, pp. 2565 - 2575, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejoc.201400079
    Journal articles | 2014
    Chittimalla SK; Kuppusamy R; Bandi C, 2014, 'A detour route for meta functionalization of phenols', Synlett, 25, pp. 1991 - 1996, http://dx.doi.org/10.1055/s-0034-1378395
    Journal articles | 2013
    Chittimalla SK; Kuppusamy R; Thiyagarajan K; Bandi C, 2013, 'Reaction of nitrile oxides with masked o-benzoquinones; Synthesis of highly functionalized isoxazolines', European Journal of Organic Chemistry, pp. 2715 - 2723, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejoc.201201670
    Journal articles | 2012
    Chittimalla SK; Kuppusamy R; Chakrabarti A, 2012, '[3+2] Cycloaddition of masked o-benzoquinones with azomethine ylides', Synlett, 23, pp. 1901 - 1906, http://dx.doi.org/10.1055/s-0031-129043
  • Conference Papers | 2022
    2022, 'Anti-amoebic activity of RK-7 peptide mimic against Acanthamoeba spp trophozoites', in INVESTIGATIVE OPHTHALMOLOGY & VISUAL SCIENCE, ASSOC RESEARCH VISION OPHTHALMOLOGY INC, https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000844437003302&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=891bb5ab6ba270e68a29b250adbe88d1
    Conference Papers | 2022
    2022, 'Antimicrobial activity of peptoids against clinical pathogens.', in Antimicrobial activity of peptoids against clinical pathogens., USA, presented at peptoidsummit2022, USA, 11 August 2022 - 12 August 2022
    Patents | 2021
    2021, Antimicrobial compounds, Patent No. United States 2021 pat no. 10988444
    Conference Papers | 2021
    2021, 'Synergistic activity of a peptide mimic with quinolones and cephalosporins against Staphylococcus aureus', in INVESTIGATIVE OPHTHALMOLOGY & VISUAL SCIENCE, ASSOC RESEARCH VISION OPHTHALMOLOGY INC, https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000690760500400&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=891bb5ab6ba270e68a29b250adbe88d1
    Conference Papers | 2013
    Wang W; Devasthale P; Longhi D; Azzara A; Devenny J; Cullen MJ; Zhang M; Caporuscio C; Zhang L; Huang C; Rampulla R; Mathur A; Shi H; Sun L; Levesque P; Apedo A; Moore D; Hicks M; Krishna K; Radhakrishnan S; Kuppusamy R; Selvaraj J; Dhanapal J; Washburn W; Robl J; Murphy B, 2013, 'Discovery of pyrazolopyrrolidinone-derived melanin concentrating hormone receptor-1 antagonists as anti-obesity agents', in ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, AMER CHEMICAL SOC, IN, Indianapolis, presented at 246th National Meeting of the American-Chemical-Society (ACS), IN, Indianapolis, 08 September 2013 - 12 September 2013, https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000329618405018&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=891bb5ab6ba270e68a29b250adbe88d1

  • Development of aerosolised disinfectant

  •   BridgeTech REDI Fellowship through MTP connects ($10000)
  • Academic Research Excellence Research Award by the School of Optometry and Vision Science UNSW

My research focuses on

  • Design and Synthesis of new antimicrobial peptides and peptidomimetics to kill many different types of microbes including bacteria, fungi, and viruses. 
  • Isolation of Bacteriophages.
  • Working on understanding the mode of action of antibacterial compounds.
  • Working on the self-assembly properties of developed peptidomimetic compounds for drug-delivery applications.

 

My Research Supervision

Co-supervisor for Ph.D. students on various projects such as the development of antibacterials, antivirals, drug delivery, surface coating of antibacterials, and engineering peptides

  • Ghayah Bahatheg 
  • Mst Umme Laila Urmi 
  • Md Abdullah Aziz
  • George Enninful
  • Samuel Attard
  • Manjulatha Sara

 

My Teaching