Sneha Ray, Ph.D. Titles and Appointments Instructor Schools Medical School Departments Biochemistry Biography Download Curriculum Vitae Sneha Ray, Ph.D., is an Instructor in the Department of Biochemistry at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where she leads research within the Phillips Laboratory on preclinical drug discovery for neglected tropical diseases. She received her M.Sc. in Analytical Chemistry from St. Joseph's University (Bangalore University), India, in 2012, where she graduated as University Gold Medalist for the top score in M.Sc. Chemistry across the University. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, in 2019, and joined UT Southwestern as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Phillips Laboratory the same year before being appointed Instructor in 2024. Dr. Ray's research integrates structural biology, mechanistic enzymology, and medicinal chemistry to advance therapeutics for malaria and other parasitic diseases. Her work includes the first demonstration of the nitro group as a masked electrophile in covalent enzyme inhibition — published in ACS Chemical Biology and recognized as one of the journal's top 20 most-downloaded articles — and the co-discovery of species-selective, orally active proteasome inhibitors for malaria, published in Cell Chemical Biology and currently being progressed under an industry collaboration . She has also developed a CRISPR-based heterologous expression workflow that enabled the first cryo-EM structural characterization of a previously intractable Plasmodium falciparum drug target. Dr. Ray serves as an invited peer reviewer for seven international scientific journals and as a Content Editor at Bio-protocol. Her contributions have been recognized through the ACS Chemical Biology "Introducing Our Authors" feature, ACS Biochemistry's Top-Viewed Paper recognition (2019), and selection for competitive national programs including RapiData at SLAC and the Pacific Northwest Cryo-EM Center grant. Education Graduate School (2019), Chemistry Research Interest Drug discovery for infectious disease Drug discovery for neglected tropical diseases (malaria, African trypanosomiasis) High-throughput screening and chemical library screening for antiparasitic leads Mechanism-based and covalent enzyme inhibition Mechanistic enzymology and enzyme kinetics Structure-based drug design and cryo-EM of parasite drug targets Publications Featured Publications Optimization of Species-Selective Reversible Proteasome Inhibitors for the Treatment of Malaria. Gahalawat S, Ray S, Zhang X, Deng X, Han Y, Chen Z, Lawong A, Shackleford DM, Katneni K, Chen G, Li P, Ng A, Zhong L, Hu M, McInerney M, Wang W, Saunders J, Collins D, Jayaseelan J, Noack CL, C Maity B, De N, Laleu B, Campbell SF, Phillips MA, Charman SA, Ready JM, J Med Chem 2025 Oct Synthesis of the 5/5-spiroindimicin alkaloids: development of a general synthetic approach and biological investigations. Banerjee A, Brisco TA, Ray S, Datta A, Zhang X, Zhang Z, Busse AA, Niederstrasser H, Sumida K, Posner BA, Wetzel DM, Phillips MA, Smith MW, Org Biomol Chem 2024 Nov Identification of potent and reversible piperidine carboxamides that are species-selective orally active proteasome inhibitors to treat malaria. Lawong A, Gahalawat S, Ray S, Ho N, Han Y, Ward KE, Deng X, Chen Z, Kumar A, Xing C, Hosangadi V, Fairhurst KJ, Tashiro K, Liszczak G, Shackleford DM, Katneni K, Chen G, Saunders J, Crighton E, Casas A, Robinson JJ, Imlay LS, Zhang X, Lemoff A, Zhao Z, Angulo-Barturen I, Jiménez-Díaz MB, Wittlin S, Campbell SF, Fidock DA, Laleu B, Charman SA, Ready JM, Phillips MA, Cell Chem Biol 2024 Jul Total synthesis of (+)-spiroindimicin A and congeners unveils their antiparasitic activity. Zhang Z, Ray S, Imlay L, Callaghan LT, Niederstrasser H, Mallipeddi PL, Posner BA, Wetzel DM, Phillips MA, Smith MW, Chem Sci 2021 Aug 12 30 10388-10394 New Electrophiles and Strategies for Mechanism-Based and Targeted Covalent Inhibitor Design. Ray S, Murkin AS, Biochemistry 2019 Dec 58 52 5234-5244 The Nitro Group as a Masked Electrophile in Covalent Enzyme Inhibition. Ray S, Kreitler DF, Gulick AM, Murkin AS, ACS Chem Biol 2018 Jun 13 6 1470-1473 Results 1-6 of 6 1 Honors & Awards RapiData 2025, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory participant (2025) Pacific Northwest Cryo-EM Center (PNCC) proposal recipient (2023-2026) Postdoctoral Association Travel Award (2021) UTSW Distinguished Postdoctoral Service Award, Nominee (2021) Featured Author Profile "Introducing Our Authors," in ACS Chemical Biologyhttps://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acschembio.8b00523 (2018) Graduate Student Highlight, University at Buffalo Department of Chemistry - recognition for notable scholarly accomplishments (2018) Graduate Student Highlight, University at Buffalo Department of Chemistry - recognition for notable scholarly accomplishments (2018) Mattern Tyler Award for Outstanding Teaching, Department of Chemistry, University at Buffalo (2016) Gold Medal in Chemistry, St. Joseph's University / Bangalore University (2012)
