Dr. Hina Andleeb

• Position: Visiting Assistant Professor
• Department: Chemistry
• Office Location: Building 58, Room 008
• handleeb1@uwf.edu
• Campus: 850.474.2547
• LinkedIn

Biography

Dr. Hina Andleeb, a dedicated and accomplished chemist, is an Assistant Professor visiting the Department of Chemistry at the University of West Florida. She did her Ph.D. in Chemistry with two postdocs from the University of Florida, Gainesville, and Northeastern University Boston. Before joining UWF, she worked as a Research Scientist at NEU. She is a passionate teacher and self-motivated medicinal Chemistry/drug discovery researcher with over 14 years of experience in design, synthesis, characterization, evaluation, and computational studies of “novel organic drug-like candidates. Her research work focuses on unmet clinical needs. Her current interest focuses on the neuropharmacological profile of nicotinic ACh receptor modulators. Dr. Andleeb has significantly contributed to developing novel selective α9 agonists with demonstrated therapeutic efficacy in preclinical models of neuropathic pain. During her Ph.D program, Dr. Andleeb was awarded a fellowship to do a part of her research work at Oxford University, UK, where, in addition to organic synthesis, she also gained hands-on experience in cell culture techniques, extraction of histone proteins from DNA, and preparation of samples for metabolomics analysis. Her doctoral research focused on the design,  discovery, and computational studies of novel pyrazole and thioxothiazolidine-based compounds as inhibitors of aldose reductase and human ectonucleotidases, with results published in reputed journals.

Dr. Andleeb's teaching philosophy fosters a deep understanding of chemical principles while encouraging critical thinking and problem-solving skills. She has six years of teaching experience in chemistry at the master's and undergraduate levels. With extensive teaching experience and a strong passion for education and scientific discovery, Dr. Andleeb has held positions such as Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Lecturer, bringing a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her every classroom. She has taught a wide range of chemistry courses, including General Chemistry, Organic Synthesis, Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Infrared Spectroscopy, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy (1D and 2D), Mass Spectrometry, Retrosynthesis, Computational Tools in Chemistry, and Medicinal/Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Biochemistry at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Additionally, she has supervised four MS thesis students as an Assistant professor. At UF and NEU, Dr. Andleeb supervised undergrad students in their thesis research work, ensuring their academic and professional growth.

Dr. Andleeb is highly proficient in computational tools, molecular docking, energy minimization, Frontier molecular orbitals-HOMO-LUMO, Insilco Chemical stability, and ADME profiling. She utilizes software such as Maestro by Schrödinger, Discovery Studio, and AutoDock Vina. She is eager to teach computational tools to her students at UWF.

Dr. Andleeb is committed to advancing scientific knowledge through innovative research, focusing on rapidly translating fundamental mechanistic discoveries to clinical applications. She is adept at recognizing, analyzing, and solving scientific problems; they thrive in collaborative environments. Her leadership and project management skills have been demonstrated through the successful supervision of MS students and her involvement in grant writing and conference presentations.

With a solid commitment to academic excellence and innovative research, Dr. Andleeb is eager to contribute to the success of educational institutions and research programs. Her international research experience in the UK, Singapore, and the USA has equipped her to thrive in diverse environments, making her a valuable addition to any academic or research team.

Degrees & Institutions

• Post-doctoral Research Associate and Research Scientist Northeastern University, USA (July 2022- Sept 2023)
• Post-doctoral Research Associate University of Florida, USA (April 2021- July 2022)
• Ph.D. (Chemistry), (Grade A+ in course work) Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), PK and Oxford University, UK (2012-2018)
• M.Phil. Organic Chemistry, (1st Position, Grade A+) QAU, PK, (2009-2011)
• Masters (M.Sc.) Chemistry, (1st Position, 1st Div.) QAU 45320, PK (2007-2009)

Research

Dr. Andleeb is a self-motivated medicinal Chemistry/drug discovery researcher with over 14 years of experience in design, synthesis, characterization, evaluation, and computational studies of “novel organic drug-like candidates. Her research work focuses on unmet clinical needs. Her current interest focuses on the neuropharmacological profile of pentameric ligand-gated ion channels, particularly nicotinic ACh receptor modulators. The central goal of her current research is to design, discover, and structure-activity relationships (SAR) and computational and binding mode analysis of novel small drug molecules as agonists/partial agonists/antagonists of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), i.e., a9, a9a10, a7 nAChRs. Her research, especially related to nAChRs, has led to developing novel selective a9 agonists over a7 with demonstrated therapeutic efficacy in preclinical models of neuropathic pain. Andleeb has designed and synthesized a variety of orthosteric ligands that have found great use as pharmacological and biochemical probes. These include APAdiEPP, HA84, and GAT2711, with anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects. Dr. Andleeb is actively publishing in various journals, resulting in 24 peer-reviewed publications, one US Patent Published and granted, and one US Patent filed. Andleeb has strong collaboration and leadership skills, as demonstrated by spearheading collaborative projects with medicinal chemists and winning an SRGP grant from HEC. She has exceptional project management and communication skills, as exhibited by independently leading several projects.

She has experience writing publications, patents, and NIH/RO1 grant writing with excellent written, interpersonal, and collaborative communication skills. She enjoys presenting her work at conferences or training workshops. Dr. Andleeb is voluntarily offering her services as a reviewer for esteemed Medicinal Chemistry Journals.

Special Interests

Specializations

• Organic Synthesis: Synthesis of organic compounds, C-N and C-C cross-coupling reactions, Formylation reactions, Pd catalyzed reactions, condensation reactions, coupling reactions etc., purification by normal phase chromatography, Reverse phase chromatography, Flash chromatography, Prep-TLC 1HNMR 1D, 2D, 13CNMR IR, LCMS, HPLC, GC-MS.
• Advanced Small Molecule Medicinal Chemistry: Progressing on developing novel small-molecule therapeutics through medicinal chemistry and innovative drug discovery methodologies.
• Ligand-based Drug Discovery: Specializing in identifying and optimizing ligands through advanced computational tools and SAR analysis to accelerate drug development processes.
• AI-Enhanced Drug Discovery: Leading the integration of AI technologies to revolutionize drug discovery, optimizing the design and development of new drugs through AI tools. Virtual screening, Pharmacophore modeling, etc.
• Molecular Modeling and Energy Calculations: Utilizing computational tools for Molecular docking, binding mode analysis, insilico ADME Predictions, Calculation of minimized states for different conformations, Frontier orbital calculations etc.

Publications

1. Andleeb, H; Papke, R. L.; Stokes, C; Richter, K; Herz, S; Chiang, K; Kanumuri, S; Sharma, A.; Damaj, M. I.; Grau, V; Horenstein, N; Thakur, G. Explorations of agonist selectivity for the α9* nAChR with novel substituted carbamoyl/amido/heteroaryl dialkylpiperazinium salts and their therapeutic implications in pain and inflammation ACS J. Med. Chem. 2024 (Published May 15, 2024). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.3c02429

2. Dallanoce.C.; Richter, K.; Stokes, C.; Papotto, C.; Andleeb. H.; Thakur, G. A.; Kerr, A.; Grau, V.; Papke R. L. New Alpha9 nAChR Ligands Based on a 5-(Quinuclidin-3-ylmethyl)-1, 2, 4-oxadiazole Scaffold. ACS Chem. Neurosci. 2024, 15, 4, 827–843.

3. Papke, R. L.; Andleeb, H.; Stokes, C. Quadri, M.; Horenstein, N.A. Selective agonists and antagonists of alpha9 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. ACS Chem. Neurosci. 2022, 13, 5, 624–637.

4. Andleeb, H.; Hussain, M.; Ejaz, S . A.; Lecka, J.; Sevigny, J.; Yasinzai, M.; Zhang, J.; Iqbal, J.; Hameed, S. Synthesis and computational studies of highly selective inhibitors of human recombinant tissue non-specific alkaline phosphatase (h-TNAP): a therapeutic target against vascular calcification. Bioorganic chemistry. 2020, 101, 103999.

5. Andleeb, H.; Hameed, S.; Ejaz, S. A.; Khan, I.; Zaib, S,; Lecka, J.; Sévigny,J.; Iqbal, J. Probing the high potency of pyrazolyl pyrimidinetriones and thioxopyrimidinediones as selective and efficient non-nucleotide inhibitors of recombinant human ectonucleotidases. Bioorg. Chem. 2019, 88, 102893.

6. Andleeb, H.; Tehseen, Y.; Jabeen, F.; Khan, I.; Iqbal, J.; Hameed, S. Exploration of thioxothiazolidinone-sulfonate conjugates as a new class of aldehyde/aldose reductase inhibitors: A synthetic and computational investigation. Bioorg. Chem. 2017, 75, 1-15.

7. Andleeb, H.; Tehseen, Y.; Shah, S. J. A.; Khan, I.; Iqbal, J.; Hameed, S. Identification of novel pyrazole-rhodanine hybrid scaffolds as potent inhibitors of aldose reductase: design, synthesis, biological evaluation and molecular docking analysis. RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 77688-77700.