On the 29th of June 2016 Sharmin Nadkarni and Narasimha Bolla Rao defended their PhD theses at the Meeting of the Board of the Pharmacy Department of the Medical University of Warsaw, Poland. Sharmin defended his thesis entitled “Synthesis, structure determination and biological evaluation of double point modified vitamin D analogs” and Narasimha his thesis entitled “Design, synthesis and biological activity of vitamin D analogs with the extended and unsaturated side chain”. Both Sharmin and Narasimha were supervised by Prof. Andrzej Kutner, Co-chair of the DECIDE Project. Sharmin’s thesis was reviewed by Prof. Rafał Siciński from the Chemistry Department of the University of Warsaw and Prof. Sergiusz Markowicz from the Institute of Oncology in Warsaw. Narasimha’s thesis was also reviewed by Prof. Rafał Siciński and by Prof. Michał Żmijewski from the Faculty of Medicine of the Medical University of Gdansk.
The defenses were conducted in English (with simultaneous translation) for the first time in the Pharmacy Department. Both researchers were granted a PhD degree in pharmaceutical sciences with the highest possible distinction “Summa cum laudae”. They are also both senior authors / co-authors of four research papers in outstanding scientific journals. Immediately after their defenses, they travelled to the Chemistry Department of the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain - Prof. Antonio Mourino’s laboratory - for summer training in molecular modelling and in advanced organic synthesis. They both continue to work on their research within the DECIDE Project.