Bharat Bhattarai
Dr. Bharat Bhattarai hails from Nepal, a beautiful country of Mt. Everest, and holds PhD in chemistry and molecular cell biology from Inha University, South Korea. After several years of postdoctoral research at the University of Manitoba and the University of Connecticut, he started his teaching career in universities. He brings over two decades of teaching and research experience with undergraduate students. Before joining Flagler College, he was an associate professor of chemistry at Waldorf University, Forest City, Iowa.
Professional Profile
- MS: Chemistry
- PhD: Chemistry and Molecular Cell Biology
Teaching
- COR 123 (Environmental Burden)
- CHE 347 (Organic Chemistry I)
Research
Dr. Bhattarai’s research focuses in developing drugs for the treatment of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity and cancers. He is working on developing novel, potent and selective inhibitors for protein tyrosine phosphatases which are known to be responsible for these chronic conditions. He designs and synthesizes new organic molecules and optimize their structures by structure activity relationship (SAR) studies for better biological activity and efficiency.
In a separate project, Dr. Bhattarai collaborates with Ames National Laboratory in developing new catalysts that efficiently break C-O and C-H bonds and have significant impact in synthetic chemistry and industrial chemistry.
Dr. Bhattarai is always looking for enthusiastic students to work in these exciting projects. Students will have an unparallel opportunity to learn and gain hands on experience in synthetic organic chemistry, protein chemistry, enzyme chemistry and several aspects of drug discovery and development for the treatment of diabetes, obesity, and cancers.