Aneesh obtained his Ph.D. from Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad. His work was focused towards design and development of new anti-tuberculosis agents. His work has contributed towards the design of novel inhibitors against FadD enzymes involved in M. tuberculosis cell wall lipid synthesis, which suggested that these proteins have the potential to be developed as therapeutic targets for a new class of anti-mycobacterial drugs. After his academic stint, Aneesh moved into the pharmaceutical industry and joined Syngene International Limited (a Biocon Company), Bangalore, India. He was actively involved in planning and designing of strategies and the execution of several drug discovery and development projects in co-ordination with internationally leading pharmaceutical firms.

Aneesh leads the structural biology team at the CCBT, which supports structure-based compound design against a varied portfolio of targets involved in intracellular signaling pathways. We use state-of-the art technology to grow protein and protein-ligand/inhibitor co-complex crystals. By combining X-ray crystallography with other biophysical methods, our aim is to generate high resolution structural information to understand protein-ligand/inhibitor interactions. Our work is closely integrated with computational and medicinal chemistry groups in CCBT to provide inputs on compound design based on the structural data generated to facilitate hits-to-leads and lead optimization chemistry.  

Faculty