Vol. 27 No. 3
May-June 2005

Subcommittee Members Teach Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry

Three IUPAC members with a group of Brazilian postgraduate students during the summer school: 3rd from the left, Janos Fischer; 5th: Eliezer J. Barreiro; and 6th: Eli Breuer.

The Subcommittee on Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Development of the IUPAC Chemistry and Human Health Division (Div VII) held its last meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to coincide with the XI Summer School in Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry at the Laboratory of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. About 200 students participated in the Summer School, organized by Professor Eliezer J. Barreiro. Within the framework of this Summer School, the subcommittee members taught a short course (a total of 11 hours) entitled “Highlights in Medicinal Chemistry” in which about 40 postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers participated. The subcommittee met all day on 13 February, while the course went from 14 to 18 February 2005.

The short course was special because most of the lecturers are also inventors of drugs, so they provided real insight into the process of new drug discovery. The caliber of lecturers, the excellent organization of Prof. Barreiro, and the interest of the students created a good atmosphere. The subcommittee was very satisfied with the weeklong format and schedule and agreed that such events will spark interest in IUPAC among young scientists.

Highlights in Medicinal Chemistry - short course program
Session 1
Past Approaches to Drug Discovery - an historical survey, Prof. Robin Ganellin (RG, University College London, UK)
Drug Discovery in Traditional Medicine, Dr. Mukund Chorghade (MC, Chorghade Enterprises, USA)
Design and Discovery of Viramune - a Marketed anti-AIDS Drug, Dr. John Proudfoot (JP, Boehringer-Ingelheim, USA)

Session 2
Current AIDS Therapeutics - examples of Modern Drug Discovery at Work, JP
Process Chemistry, MC

Session 3
Design of a Peptidase Inhibitor, RG

Session 4
Medicinal Chemistry of Antiulcer Agents, Dr. Jörg Senn-Bilfinger (Altana Pharma, Germany)
Esmolol -the birth of soft drug technology- and Beyond, Prof. Paul W. Erhardt (PWE, University of Toledo, USA)
Drug Metabolism and Drug Design, PWE

Session 5
Analog-based Drug Discovery (an IUPAC project), Dr. Janos Fischer (Richter Ltd, Hungary)
Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMPs): Their Damage and the Effort for their Inhibition, Prof. Eli Breuer (Hebrew University Jerusalem)

For more information contact Robin Ganellin <[email protected]>, chairman of the Subcommittee on Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Development.

www.iupac.org/divisions/VII/VII.M