Susruta Majumdar, PhD, holds a primary appointment as a Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM). Majumdar received his undergraduate and post-graduate education in Organic Chemistry from Delhi University, Delhi, India. He went on to receive a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry under Prof. Kenneth B. Sloan from the University of Florida College of Pharmacy in Gainesville, FL.
Majumdar’s interests in Neuropharmacology began while being a Research Fellow with Prof. Gavril W. Pasternak at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). Dr. Majumdar synthesized ligands targeting splice variants of the mu opioid receptor. He was then promoted as an Assistant Attending Chemist in the Department of Neurology at MSKCC. While being a faculty he was awarded the Early Career Award in Chemistry of Drug Abuse and Addiction by the NIH and American Chemical Society Young Investigator award from the division of Medicinal Chemistry. Majumdar lab ligands has led to structures of several opioid receptor modulators in its active state. The laboratory has also investigated the Chemistry and Pharmacology of Natural product-based Analgesics as novel opioid modulators.
Majumdar joined the Center for Clinical Pharmacology as an Associate Professor in 2018 and was promoted to full Professorship in 2023. Research in the laboratory is aimed at attaining functional selectivity of opioid agonist action from its own target adverse effects while integrating chemical synthesis with biochemical, genetic, and pharmacological approaches. The overall goal of the laboratory is to synthesize novel chemical probes which allow us to understand preclinical/clinical pharmacology of opioid receptors and its physiological responses when activated. Majumdar collaborates extensively with basic scientists and clinicians at the Center as well as across WUSM and other universities across the country. The laboratory is presently well funded by grants from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and Department of Defense. Advanced drug candidates developed in the laboratory are in Phase I clinical trials and/or heading towards IND enabling studies for treatment of pain and opioid use disorders.