Dr Vijaya Kenche
MSc, PhD

Dr Vijaya B Kenche is a Senior Research Fellow at The Florey with over 40 years of drug discovery experience spanning academia and industry. He holds a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Australian National University and Boston College.

Dr Kenche has made major contributions to the development of novel therapeutics and diagnostics from concept to clinical application. At AMRAD, he co-invented AM-36, a multi-target neuroprotective agent that advanced to late-stage clinical trials for neurodegenerative conditions. At Thrombogenix (now Thrombio), he led the discovery of K-309, a selective PI3K-β inhibitor for cardiovascular disease, now in Phase II clinical trials for stroke. Its analogue, TGX-221, was licensed to Cayman Chemical and is used globally as the gold standard reference compound for PI3K (p110β) and other kinase research.

At The Florey, Dr Kenche is driving the development of MH-153, a next-generation fluorophore with superior sensitivity and reproducibility for detecting α-synuclein aggregation in Parkinson’s disease and related synucleinopathies. His career is distinguished by high-impact publications, patents, and successful collaborations that bridge fundamental science with translational outcomes.