Dr. Afosah earned his Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm) in 2007 and his Master’s in Pharmaceutical
Analysis and Quality Control in 2010, both from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science
and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana. In 2017, he completed his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences
at Virginia Commonwealth University. Following his PhD, he received two NIH-sponsored
Postdoctoral Fellowships: the NIH K12 (2018) and K99 (2022) awards, both at the same
institution. Dr. Afosah joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of North
Texas in 2024.
Research Area:
- Chemical Biology
- Medicinal Chemistry
Research:
- Structure Activity Relationship Studies
- Synthetic organic chemistry
- Target identification
- Enzyme kinetics
Dr. Afosah’s research primarily focuses on the discovery and development of glycosaminoglycans
(GAGs) and GAG-based chemical entities, with dual aims: exploring their potential
as therapeutic agents and using them to identify drug targets.
On the therapeutic front, his work centers on GAGs and GAG-based molecules that:
1. Promote platelet production, with potential applications in treating thrombocytopenia,
2. Inhibit platelet activation, offering potential in the management of thrombotic
disorders,
3. Inhibit heparinase, with implications for cancer therapy, and
4. Inhibit neutrophil serine proteases, such as elastase and cathepsin G, making them
promising candidates for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.
Additionally, Dr. Afosah is interested in developing tools to characterize the structure
of GAGs and to study their interactions with GAG-binding proteins
Dr. Afosah's CV