About the Office of Fellowship Training

OFT Mission

The mission of the Office of Fellowship Training is:

• To support and promote a productive and fulfilling research training experience in the NIMH Intramural Research Program
• To encourage career planning and guide career management through trainee use of Individual Development Plans (IDPs)
• To provide programs and services to assist trainees in discovering and clarifying career choices
• To provide opportunities and to encourage trainees to build a professional skill set which enables them to become world leaders in academic and non-academic careers

Trainee Successes: Past & Present

Sridhar Goud Nerella, Ph.D. joined the Molecular Imaging Branch of NIMH in November 2020 as a post-doctoral visiting fellow under the supervision of Robert B. Innis, who leads development and in vivo evaluation of positron emission tomography (PET) radioligands for neuroimaging. Dr. Nerella is leading a prestigious project on PSAM-PSEM chemogenetic technology, and the goal of this project is to develop in vivo PET reporter probe systems, as applied to the transfection systems in animal models, that could be more broadly applied to gene or stem cell therapies for CNS disorders. Dr. Nerella is currently working on developing PET reporter probe systems, that can be used to verify and quantify PSAM⁴ chemogenetic receptors (PSAM⁴-GlyR for neuronal silencing and PSAM⁴-5-HT₃ for neuronal excitation in the brain) expression in primates and humans, and to facilitate the application of molecular genetic tools to the modelling and treatment of psychiatric conditions. Dr. Nerella received the 2023 Dr. Richard J. Wyatt NIMH Memorial Fellowship Training Award for excellence in translational research, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the use of PET radioligands for the development of chemogenetic technology. Dr. Nerella delivered a talk about the scientific specialties, experiences, and goals, in the first NIMH IRP Investigators’ Seminar of the year 2024. Dr. Nerella gained immense skills and expertise at NIMH to facilitate new PET molecular imaging tracers for preclinical and clinical applications. In 2023, the Montgomery County, MD daily voice published an article that a young postdoctoral fellow at the NIH has officially broken an American record with 30-hour nonstop chemistry lecture  at Kakatiya University, India back in 2016.

Before coming to NIH, Sridhar joined the drug discovery and development lab of Dr. Mallika Alvala in 2015 at the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Hyderabad, India as a Ph.D. research scholar, and the research specifically focused on developing non-carbohydrate human galectin-1 inhibitors as potential anticancer agents. Later, Sridhar continued the research on PET radioligands development for preclinical and clinical applications as a research associate of radiochemistry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, India in 2019.

Education

Ph.D., Medicinal Chemistry, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Hyderabad, India, 2019.

MBA, Human Resources, Osmania University, India, 2018.

M. Pharmacy, Medicinal Chemistry, Kakatiya University, India, 2014.

B. Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, India, 2012.

Selected Publications

1. Nerella, S. G.; Telu, S.; Liow, J.-S.; Jenkins, M. D.; Zoghbi, S. S.; Gomez, J. L.; Michaelides, M.; Eldridge, M. A. G.; Richmond, B. J.; Innis, R. B.; Pike, V. W. Synthesis and Preclinical Evaluation of [11C]uPSEM792 for PSAM4-GlyR Based Chemogenetics. Nature Scientific Reports 2024, 14 (1), 1886.

2. Li, B.; Wadhwa, P.; Lerchner, W.; Fregonara, P. Z.; Liow, J.-S.; Yan, Y.; Zoghbi, S.; Nerella, S. G.; Telu, S.; Morse, C. L.; Solis, O.; Gomez, J. L.; Holt, D.P.; Dannals, R.F.; Cummins, A.C.; Innis, R. B.; Pike, V. W.; Richmond, B. J.; Michaelides, M.; Eldridge, M. A. G. Evaluation of [¹⁸F]fluoroestradiol and ChRERα as a gene expression PET reporter system in rhesus monkey brain. Molecular Therapy 2024 (under review).

3. Nerella, S. G.; Michaelides, M.; Minamimoto, T.; Innis, R. B.; Pike, V. W.; Eldridge, M. A. G. PET Reporter Systems for the Brain. Trends in Neurosciences 2023, 46 (11), 941–952.

4. Kumar, P.; Thakur, R.; Acharya, P. C.; Mohan, H. K.; Pallavi, U. N.; Maheshwari, D.; Mohammed K M, A.; Kumar, A.; Nerella, S. G.; Joshi, R. K.; Kumar, M.; Nagaraj, C. Synthesis, Characterization, and Radiosynthesis of Fluorine-18-AVT-011 as a Pgp Chemoresistance Imaging Marker. Nature Scientific Reports 2022, 12 (1), 18584.

5. Nerella, S. G.; Ghouse, M. S.; Nagaraju, C.; Bharath, R. D.; Alvala, M.; Kumar, P. Automated Radiosynthesis and Molecular Docking Studies of Coumarin- Triazole Hybrid with Fluorine-18: A Feasibility Study. Current Radiopharmaceuticals 2022, 15 (1), 40–49.

6. Singh, P.; Nerella, S. G.; Swain, B.; Kumar Sahoo, S.; Choli, A.; Angeli, A.; Singh Kushwah, B.; Madhavi Yaddanapudi, V.; Supuran, C. T.; Arifuddin, M. Synthesis of a New Series of Quinoline/Pyridine Indole-3-Sulfonamide Hybrids as Selective Carbonic Anhydrase IX Inhibitors. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2022, 70, 128809.

7. Nerella, S. G.; Singh, P.; Sanam, T.; Digwal, C. S. PET Molecular Imaging in Drug Development: The Imaging and Chemistry Perspective. Frontiers in Medicine 2022, 9, 812270.

8. Kumar, P.; Nagaraj, C.; Joshi, R.; Nerella, S. G.; Kumar, D.; Korann, V.; Mangalore, S.; Rao, N. P. Radiosynthesis of [18F]Flumazenil for Imaging Benzodiazepine Receptors and Its Evaluation in Human Volunteers Using Simultaneous PET-MRI. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry 2021, 329 (2), 581–589.

9. Nerella, S. G.*; Bhattacharya, A.; Joshi, R. K.; Nagaraj, C.; Bharath, R. D.; Kumar, P. Carbon-11: Radiochemistry and Target-Based PET Molecular Imaging Applications in Oncology, Cardiology, and Neurology. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2021, 64 (3), 1223–1259.

10. Joshi, R. K.#; Nerella, S. G.#; Nagaraj, C.; Kumar, D.; R, G.; Rao, N. P.; Dhawan, A.; Bhattacharya, A.; Mangalore, S.; Bharath, R. D.; Kumar, P. Radiosynthesis Challenges of 11C and 18F-Labeled Radiotracers in the FX2C/N Tracerlab and Their Validation through PET-MR Imaging. Applied Radiation and Isotopes 2021, 168, 109486.

11. Thacker, P. S.; Nerella, S. G.; Argulwar, O. S.; Soman, J.; Angeli, A.; Alvala, M.; Arifuddin, M.; Supuran, C. T. Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Some Coumarin Hybrids as Selective Carbonic Anhydrase IX and XII Inhibitors. Bioorganic Chemistry 2020, 104, 104272.

12. Nerella, S. G.; Pooladanda, V.; Muni Chandra, K.; Lakshmi Soukya, P. S.; Alvala, R.; Kumar, P.; Nagaraj, C.; Dawn Bharath, R.; Qureshi, I. A.; Godugu, C.; Alvala, M. Novel Benzimidazole-Triazole Hybrids as Apoptosis Inducing Agents in Lung Cancer: Design, Synthesis, 18F-Radiolabeling & Galectin-1 Inhibition Studies. Bioorganic Chemistry 2020, 102, 104125.

13. Nerella, S. G.; Joshi, R. K.; Bharath, R. D.; Kumar, P. Fluorine-18: A Radionuclide with Diverse Range of Radiochemistry and Synthesis Strategies for Target Based PET Diagnosis. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry2020, 187, 111979.

14. Nerella, S. G.; Kanth Makani, V. K.; Pranay, J.; Alvala, R.; Qureshi, I. A.; Kumar, P.; Bharath, R. D.; Nagaraj, C.; Yerramsetty, S.; Pal-Bhadra, M.; Alvala, M. Synthesis, 18F-Radiolabeling and Apoptosis Inducing Studies of Novel 4, 7-Disubstituted Coumarins. Bioorganic Chemistry 2020, 97, 103663.

15. Nerella, S. G.; Ghouse, S. M.; Vishnu, J.; Komal, D.; Talla, V.; Alvala, R.; Pranay, J.; Kumar, J.; Qureshi, I. A.; Alvala, M. Synthesis of 1-Benzyl-1H-Benzimidazoles as Galectin-1 Mediated Anticancer Agents. Bioorganic Chemistry 2019, 89, 103016.