Hirak Basu works in the field of anti-cancer small molecule drug development for over twenty years. He has pioneered two investigational new anti-cancer drugs and has numerous peer-reviewed publications in prestigious cancer journals and is a member of NIH and DOD grant review study sections.

Hirak received his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Science, where he was was trained by G.N. Ramachandran and V. Shashisekharan, world renowned leaders in Macromolecular Chemistry. Hirak was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California San Francisco and became a member of the research faculty in small molecule anti-cancer drug development. Subsequently he joined the faculty of Department of Human Oncology of the University of Wisconsin, in anti-cancer drug design, testing and drug development. He has research grants from NIH and DOD, including SBIR grant support as Principal Investigator and continuously received Federal and other funds for anti-cancer drug development for the past 20+ years. At Colby, he also interacts and works with national and international experts and collaborating scientists to develop anti-cancer drugs. He has numerous published and issued patent applications for novel small molecule anti-cancer drugs. Hirak and his collaborators were the first to observe that CPC-200, as a suicide substrate for a catabolic oxidase enzyme with prostate specific substrates, inhibits hydrogen peroxide induced Oxidative Stress directly at its metabolic source in the prostate and is therapeutic for prostate disease.

Hirak was Associate Director of Biology of SLIL Biomedical Corporation, an anti-cancer drug development company in Madison, WI that he joined when he was in the faculty of the Department of Human Oncology in the University of Wisconsin, Madison. SLIL’s drugs were subsequently acquired by CellGate, Inc. Hirak has managed, or is currently managing, grants and contracts, including Federal funds, where he was or is currently the Principal Investigator (PI) or a major co-investigator. He was also the key scientist who led the development of two anti-cancer agents developed at SLIL Biomedical and was primarily responsible for the IND application submissions of these drugs, which are currently in human clinical trials. Thus, he is one of the few individual investigators who have successfully developed more than one novel anti-cancer agents from biochemical and pathway analyses and rational drug designs all the way to pre-clinical validation and into clinical trials. In summary, Hirak has extensive experience in all stages of small molecule anti-cancer drug development.