Inter-College Lecture Series, College of Basic and Applied Sciences

Starting February 24, 2017 - Ending February 24, 2018 Expired

The next Inter -College Lecture will be delivered by Prof. Robert Kingsford-Adaboh, Acting Dean of the School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences in the College of Basic and Applied Sciences.

 

Topic: From Folkloric Anecdotes to Pharmacological agents. The Role of X-ray Crystallography.

 

Date: Thursday, March 2, 2017

Time: 4:30 pm

Venue: ISSER Conference Hall

Chairman: Prof. Daniel K. Asiedu, Provost, College of Basic and Applied Sciences

 

All are cordially invited.

 

Please click here to access the calendar of Scholarly Lectures

 

ABSTRACT

This review discusses the potential applications and results from studies of isoflavonoids and coumarines from Millettia thonningii done by our research group and developing new pharmaceutical agents based on folkloric anecdotes. The role of X-ray crystallographic method as a scientific tool in our studies and selected examples some few well-known discoveries known to have benefited this structural tool will cited.  Millettia thonningii is a deciduous plant indigenous to tropical West Africa, other species have been used in folk‐medicine for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, chronic diseases and several pathogenic diseases. The numerous uses of M. thonningii as a traditional source of remedies has attracted research into its constituents. For instance, some isoflavones isolated from this plant have been reported to demonstrate lethal toxicity to brine shrimp as well as to inhibit activation of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) in human breast tumour T47D cells. In our recent studies, Robustic acid and Alpinumisoflavone were found to showed activity against some of the strains of bacterial and fungi used such as Salmonella typhi and Staphylococcus aureus Robustic acid and Thonningine-C were found to be cidal to Candida albicans.  C. Albicans.is one of the most common causative fungi infection despite major efforts to control it.

Scientific research has implicated several prenylated isoflavonoids as being useful antioxidants and used in the management of radical‐mediated diseases such as cancer, diabetes, ischemic heart diseases, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases etc. Plants continue to maintain their historical stead as a store house of important drug candidates and source of new “leads” for synthetic modifications to improve activity through optimization of pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties. Information obtained from crystal structural studies of these alpinumisoflavonoids coupled with their molecular and electronic distribution properties can further our understanding of their therapeutic potential and their observed bioactivities. The discovery of monoamine oxidase inhibition potential of some constituents of this plant make them potentially useful in the search for new drug candidates and “Lead” compounds for the synthesis of drugs to tackle the numerous radical mediated diseases. Utilization of the crystal structure information to model various receptor binding and docking experiments would further bring to light the therapeutic potentials of the constituents of these plants.

 

PROFILE

Prof Robert Kingsford-Adaboh graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry major at UCC in 1987. Worked as an Assistant Collector with Customs, Excise and Preventive service for a year. In 1990, won the Japanese MONBUSHO scholarship to read Physical Chemistry with specialization in Chemistry/Chemical Crystallography in Okayama University, graduated in MSc and PhD in Chemistry in 1996.

He joined the University of Ghana in the same year as a Lecturer in Chemistry on his return to Ghana. In 1999, he won the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Scholarship in the George Foster division to pursue a 2-year postdoctoral research in Frèi Universitaet of Berlin. The Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) granted him another one year post-doctoral position in his mother faculty in Japan. He was the Head (HoD) of the Department of Chemistry prior to his current position. He is an Associate Professor in Chemistry, and the current Acting Dean of the School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences in the College of Basic and Applied Sciences.

His areas of research are X-ray diffraction studies of bioactive molecules, molecular modeling and computation, Charge density studies, drug screening and organic photo voltaic cells (OPV, OSCs). He has published extensively in these areas and made presentations locally and internationally on selected themes in these areas.