He is also the founding director of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, that was established in 2006 and served the office till 2017.

[1] He is a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in chemical sciences (1998) for "his outstanding contribution towards the understanding of the chemical principles of DNA molecular recognition and for his work on various facets of DNA structure and its interaction with drugs and proteins".

Utilizing a Commonwealth Fellowship, he pursued higher studies at the University of Cambridge, where he secured a second PhD degree in 1980.

In 1987, he moved to National Chemical Laboratory where he rose to become the Head of Organic Chemistry Division in 1994.

He is recognised for his contributions to the design of Peptide Nucleic Acid (PNA) analogues for effective cell permeation.