College of Medicine
Khanna Lab
Led by May Khanna · Pharmacology and Therapeutics
What we study
The Khanna Lab develops small molecule drugs for neurodegenerative diseases like ALS, Alzheimer’s, and Batten disease. They use methods like NMR studies and molecular docking to design and test potential treatments.
What working here is like
- Wet lab
- Computational
- Coding helps
- Projects
- 6
- Papers
- 5
Current projects
Ligand TDP-43 NMR Studies
Studying interactions between TDP-43 protein and RNA to understand neurodegenerative diseases.
Biophysical and pathophysiological studies of TDP-43/Tau interaction
Investigating how TDP-43 and Tau proteins interact in neurodegenerative diseases.
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Development of Heterobifunctional Degraders of TDP-43 as a Novel Therapeutic Strategy for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
Creating degraders to target TDP-43 protein in ALS treatment.
Targeting CLN3 mRNA for Innovative Batten Disease Therapeutics
Using structural probing and molecular docking to find small molecules for Batten disease.
Development of Novel Blood-Brain Barrier Impenetrable GABA Transaminase Inhibitors to Treat Hyperglycemia, Hyperinsulinemia, and…
Designing inhibitors to treat metabolic disorders by targeting GABA transaminase.
Modeling Respiratory Mechanics and Pressure Differences: An Improved Lung Balloon Teaching Model
The project improves a lung balloon teaching model by using a large syringe and Arduino pressure sensors to better mimic lung pressure, volume, resistance, and compliance. It is already used in an undergraduate physiology course and will be further validated for broader educational use.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 208
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- Identifying interactions between TDP ‐43's N‐terminal and RNA‐ binding domains
2025 · Protein Science
Studies how parts of a disease protein interact with each other.
- Patient-reported pain is associated with fibronectin expression in oral cancer
2025 · Oral Surgery Oral Medicine Oral Pathology and Oral Radiology
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- Molecular Dynamics Simulation of TDP-43 RRM in the Presence and Absence of RNA
2024 · Journal of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
Simulates how a disease protein changes shape when bound to RNA.
- Human Hsp70 Substrate-Binding Domains Recognize Distinct Client Proteins
2024 · Biochemistry
Finds that different heat shock proteins bind to different proteins in the body.
- A peptidomimetic modulator of the Ca V 2.2 N-type calcium channel for chronic pain
2023 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Develops a drug that blocks pain by targeting a specific protein.
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
May Khanna hasn't set up this page yet. You can also look them up in the UF directory (search “May Khanna”).