School of Chemistry & Physics

Prof Neil Anthony Koorbanally

Professor of Organic Chemistry, College Dean of Research

  • 031 260 3189
  • Koorbanally@ukzn.ac.za
  • PhD, MSc, BScHons
  • Chemistry
  • Westville Campus
 

Prof Koorbanally is an Organic Chemist with over 20 years of experience in the fields of Natural Products and Synthetic Organic Chemistry. He works on the synthesis of hybrid organic molecules for the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific interest in quinolines, benzimidazoles, quinoxalines, chalcones and coumarins. 

To date he has published over 150 scientific articles and graduated 25 doctoral and 21 Masters students. He is currently the Dean of Research in the College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science.

Research interests

  • Synthetic Organic Chemistry
  • Medicinal Chemistry Research

Research profiles

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ORCID
Researchgate
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Research overview

Heterocyclic compounds play an important part in drug discovery. Many pharmaceutical drugs currently marketed contain heterocycles. In particular, Prof Koorbanally is looking at hybridising two heterocyclic scaffolds together to form a single compound with the potential to have antibacterial, antimalarial, antitubercular and anticancer activity. Active functional groups are normally used in the synthetic strategy to join the two scaffolds together.

Current projects

Prof Koorbanally is currently working on the synthesis of hybrid organic molecules for the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific interest in quinolines, benzimidazoles, quinoxalines, chalcones and coumarins. His current projects involve hybridising coumarins and chalcones through a triazole linker using click chemistry. These compounds have shown interesting antibacterial activity. Coupling benzimidazoles to amino acids, and quinolines with various other scaffolds such as benzimidazoles, chalcones and thiazolidines have also proven to have interesting bioactivity. His current interest is using amino acid linkers to hybridise various combinations of quinolines, benzimidazoles, quinoxalines and chalcones.

Collaborators

  • Professor Morteza Shiri (Alzhara University, Iran)
  • Professor Robyn van Zyl (Wits University, South Africa)