The book, From Digitalis to Ziagen, covers the history of the University of Minnesota’s Department of Medicinal Chemistry.

Authored by Professor Yusuf Abul-Hajj and Richard Broderick, the book covers everything from the establishment of the College of Pharmacy and the department, to profiles of notable faculty members and the leadership role the department and its faculty played in drug development.

Abul-Hajj has long had an interest in writing a comprehensive history of Medicinal Chemistry beginning with the founding of the University of Minnesota’s College of Pharmacy in 1892 until today.

"The period of time covered in this book — 1892 to 2012 — represents the most revolutionary era in the history of the entire discipline of medicinal chemistry, witnessing the transformation of the field from an artisanal, trial-and-error approach to isolating and testing therapeutic elements in natural elements to today’s high-tech, computer-assisted discovery and design of new, targeted drugs.

Abul-Hajj said, "Since its founding in 1892, the department has mirrored the breathtaking changes that have taken place in the analysis, discovery, and — increasingly — the design of effective drugs for the treatment of some of humanity’s most deadly and crippling disorders. And it has more than mirrored those changes, in many cases, playing a critical role effecting those changes."