Cancer drug discovery in our research group has yielded success in breast cancer therapeutics which was effective against all three types of breast cancer that includes the triple-negative type for which there are no drugs in the market. The research group is currently focussing on oral cancer therapeutics in collaboration with the Biological Sciences department with Dr. Trinath in the discovery of drugs targeting glucose metabolism in cancer. We work on designing new drugs/ prototypical leads to target specific cancer proteins, using computational tools based on several algorithms to screen and design thousands of compounds in a short time. This strategy is followed by the selection of a few best chemical structures (pharmacophores) which show high affinity towards the target cancer protein. Multiple chemical compounds (new chemical entities or NCEs) are synthesized in our lab based on the selected pharmacophores. These NCEs are then tested in the biological systems, specifically the enzymes/ proteins or cancer cells in petri dishes followed by testing the most effective NCEs in animal models of cancer. Mechanistic studies are also performed to understand the mechanism of action of the NCEs in in-vitro culture systems (in the cancer cells), the techniques include western blot (for protein expression), real-time PCR (for gene expression), immunofluorescence studies (using confocal microscopy). The actives NCEs are also studied for their efficacy in 3D spheroid models of tumor in vitro to study cancer cell spheroid growth inhibition.