Rate My Professor Rachna Sadana

Rachna Sadana is Professor of Biology and Department Chair in the Department of Natural Sciences at the University of Houston-Downtown. She holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Kurukshetra University. Prior to her current role, she conducted research at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, contributing to studies on adenylyl cyclase regulation by G proteins. At UHD since at least 2014, she became Department Chair in September 2019. Her research centers on the early stages of anti-cancer drug discovery, involving the design, synthesis, and in vitro evaluation of novel heterocyclic compounds such as arylidene-hydrazinyl-thiazoles, thiazolo-triazole hybrids, and pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines for their cytotoxic activity against human cancer cell lines. These studies explore mechanisms including apoptosis induction, tubulin polymerization inhibition, and DNA photocleavage. Additional research includes isolation and genome sequencing of Mycobacterium smegmatis phages, such as Purgamenstris, PhancyPhin, Findley, Hurricane, TBond007, AlleyCat, Edugator, and Guillsminger.

Dr. Sadana has authored or co-authored 21 peer-reviewed journal articles, 16 of which include undergraduate co-authors, including recent publications like 'Design, Synthesis, and In Vitro Cytotoxic Studies of Some Novel Arylidene-Hydrazinyl-Thiazoles as Anticancer and Apoptosis-Inducing Agents' (2024), 'Multicomponent regioselective synthesis of 7-aryl-5-methyl- and 5-aryl-7-trifluoromethyl-2-amino-3-(4′-arylazo)-pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines and their cytotoxic evaluation' (2023), and 'Synthesis and In vitro‐In silico Evaluation of Thiazolo‐triazole Hybrids as Anticancer Candidates' (2023). She has secured external funding as Principal Investigator for a $75,000 grant from the Welch Foundation to equip her laboratory and as Co-Principal Investigator on other externally funded projects. Over the past 15 years, she has mentored more than 140 students, with many advancing to medical schools, graduate programs, or research laboratories. Her students have won awards at science research conferences for cancer studies performed in her lab. Dr. Sadana serves on the university's Biosafety Committee and oversees faculty career development in her department.