Dipesh Dhakal, Ph.D., M.S.

Dipesh Dhakal, Ph.D., is an assistant scientist in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy. His research integrates bioinformatics, chemical biology, and synthetic biology to drive the genome-guided discovery of natural products from marine and terrestrial microorganisms.

Dr. Dhakal earned his B.Tech in Biotechnology from Kathmandu University (2007), his M.S. from Guru Nanak Dev University (2010), and his Ph.D. from Sun Moon University (2016), where he specialized in the biosynthetic and regulatory pathways of actinobacteria. Prior to his current appointment in March 2026, he served as a Postdoctoral Associate at the UF Center for Natural Products, Drug Discovery and Development. His postdoctoral work focused on the enzymatic mechanisms and biosynthesis of cyanobacterial natural products, including lyngbyastatins, apratoxins, and dolastatin-10. Dr. Dhakal’s primary research goal is to discover and develop novel bioactive molecules for therapeutic applications by unraveling their complex biosynthetic mechanisms.