Department of Medicinal Chemistry
The Department of Medicinal Chemistry consists of a diverse group of faculty members, PhD graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and research scientists working at the interface of chemistry and biology.
Areas of research focus in the Department include antiviral drug design, cancer drug discovery and chemoprevention, chemical biology, carcinogenesis, peptidomimetics, receptor modeling, drug metabolism, gene therapy, combinatorial biosynthesis, natural product chemistry and NMR and X-ray crystallography.
Featured Faculty
Gunda Georg
What does it take to get to that moment in a clinic when a doctor gives a patient a compound never before used in modern medicine? The story of Minnelide, illustrates just how complex and exhilarating that journey can be.
Read more about the story of Minnelide
Courtney Aldrich
Aldrich is featured in the HealthTalk story, "Promising research for a new antibiotic" discussing a study method that has the potential to unlock significantly more antibiotics.
Read more about "Promising research for a new antibiotic"
Daniel Harki
A new St. Paul-based company that is developing drug therapies that will make cancer treatments more effective is based on scientific discoveries by Harki.
Read more about developing drug therapies
Department News Feed
PhD Graduate Program
Graduate students receive a diverse educational experience in chemistry and biology that prepares them for the evolving multidisciplinary research of the pharmaceutical industry and academic biomedical arena.
The Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
The Journal of Medicinal Chemistry publishes studies that contribute to an understanding of the relationship between molecular structure and biological activity or mode of action.
ACS Infectious Diseases Journal
ACS Infectious Diseases is the first journal to highlight chemistry and its role in the multidisciplinary and collaborative field of infectious disease research. Read more
Institute for Therapeutics Discovery & Development
The mission of the ITDD is to carry out interdisciplinary research, help educate the next generation of scientists, and to enhance the biomedical research infrastructure at the University of Minnesota by creating opportunities for drug discovery and early pre-clinical drug development.
Department History: From Digitalis to Ziagen
The book, From Digitalis to Ziagen, covers the history of the University of Minnesota’s Department of Medicinal Chemistry. Free downloads available