Group members
Dr. Chin-Soon Phan
Head of Natural Products Research Group
e-mail: chinsoon@osi.lv
Group leader Dr. Chin-Soon Phan was trained in marine natural products and obtained his PhD in 2018 from UMS, Malaysia. He then exposed to natural products biosynthesis at the University of Western Australia (Yit-Heng Chooi), Hokkaido University (Tatsufumi Okino and Toshiyuki Wakimoto) and National University of Singapore (Brandon I. Morinaka). He started his independent research group at the Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis in December 2023.
Dr. Abujunaid Habib Khan
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Abujunaid Habib Khan was trained in microbial natural products chemistry and obtained his BSc from Savitribai Phule Pune University, MSc from Annamalai University, and PhD from CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (Syed G. Dastager). Currently, he is a postdoctoral researcher working on microbial natural products and biosynthesis at Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis.
Dr. Jabal Rahmat Haedar
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Jabal Rahmat Haedar received his bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical science from Hasanuddin University. He then obtained his MSc and PhD in marine and microbial natural products from Hokkaido University under supervision of Toshiyuki Wakimoto. After conducting short time post-doctoral training in the same lab, he then proceeds his postdoctoral researcher career in natural products biosynthesis at Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis.
Dr. Gaja Swarna Kumari
Postdoctoral Fellow (Project No. 1.1.1.9/LZP/1/24/001)
Dr. Gaja Swarna Kumari obtained her PhD from Andhra University/CSIR-IICT (India) in 2022. She subsequently held Research Associate position at CSIR-IICT and Guest Faculty position at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at IISER Kolkata (India). Since 2025, Dr. Kumari is a postdoctoral researcher at the Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, where her research focuses on the development of a biocatalyst from bacterial enzymes involved in C-H bond activation.
Vic Kiselov, BSc
Lab Manager
Vic Kiselov holds Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology, awarded in 2020 by the University of Nottingham (United Kingdom), and has a work experience at the MGI Tech Latvia as the field application developer. Currently, Vic Kiselov maintains the laboratory and conducts the daily routine tasks as well as assissts in natural products research.
Anitra Zīle, MSc
PhD student (co-supervised by Anete Borodušķe and Stefano Donadio)
