Alpesh Malde

Dr. Alpesh Malde is a Lecturer at Griffith University's School of Environment and Science (Bioscience) and leads the Computational Chemistry & Drug Design Group. He is affiliated with the Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics. His research focuses on computational methods, molecular dynamics simulations, and drug design, with a particular emphasis on force field development and validation for drug-like molecules.

Education:

• Bachelor of Pharmacy, University of Mumbai (1996–2000)
• Master of Science (Medicinal Chemistry), National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), India (2000–2001)
• PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry (Thesis: Conformation of peptides and proteins by multi-dimensional NMR and Simulation approaches), University of Mumbai (2003–2007)

Research Interests:

• Computational drug design and biomolecular simulations
• Development of force fields and computational methods
• Free energy calculations and molecular dynamics
• Validation of binding modes for drug-like molecules
• Applications in glycobiology and drug discovery

Grants:

• ARC Discovery Project (DP240100832): The role of protein glycosylation in erythropoiesis ($985,384, 2024–2027)
• National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme (NCMAS): Understanding drug and glycan binding (2025)

Awards:

• ResTeach Award (The University of Queensland, 2012 and 2011)
• ECR Travel Award (The University of Queensland, 2015)

Professional Roles:

• Chair, Digital Transformation & Data Governance sub-Committee (Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics)
• Chair, Australian Society for Biophysics (ASB) 2025 National Conference
• Committee Member, Association of Molecular Modellers of Australasia (AMMA)

Labs/Teams: Co-founder and developer of the Automated Topology Builder (ATB) and Repository, a key tool for computational chemistry.