Rate My Professor Rathindra Bose

Rathindra N. Bose was a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Houston, with additional faculty appointments in the departments of Biology and Biochemistry, and Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences. He was also a Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry. Trained as a chemist, Bose earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry from Rajshahi University in Bangladesh and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in 1982. His career spanned significant leadership roles in research administration across several institutions. Before joining the University of Houston in August 2011 as Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer and Vice Chancellor for Research and Technology Transfer at the University of Houston System, he served as Vice President for Research and Creative Activity and Dean of the Graduate College at Ohio University. He held similar positions at Northern Illinois University and Kent State University. At the University of Houston, Bose guided the Division of Research to substantial growth, increasing annual research expenditures from $92 million in 2011 to $140.6 million in 2014 while maintaining his own laboratory.

Bose specialized in research at the intersection of medicine and energy, with a focus on developing less toxic platinum-based anticancer drugs and compounds for fuel cell catalysts. Over more than two decades, he investigated the mechanisms of platinum chemotherapies and discovered the phosphaplatin family of compounds in 2005, including PT-112, which demonstrated efficacy against nearly all of the National Cancer Institute’s 60 major human cancer cell lines in preclinical testing and entered Phase I clinical trials in 2014 at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, and University of Colorado Cancer Center for non-small cell lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancers, and recurrent ovarian cancer. These drugs target tumor suppressor genes, inhibit blood supply to tumors, and selectively kill cancer cells with reduced toxicity compared to traditional platinum therapies. Bose held six issued and four pending U.S. patents related to cancer therapeutics and fuel cell catalysts. He was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2013, served as chairman of the Science Advisory Board of Phosplatin Therapeutics, reviewed for funding agencies and journals, and sat on editorial boards. His work significantly advanced cancer treatment innovation and bolstered the University of Houston’s research enterprise.