Medicinal Chemistry
Mission of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry
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Education and training of scientists of the highest caliber
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Providing future pharmacy practitioners with the basis for understanding the relationship between molecular structure and the therapeutic, dispositional, and toxicological aspects of drug action
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Improvement of human health through chemical and biological research
A diverse education in chemistry and biology that prepares students for the evolving multidisciplinary research of the pharmaceutical industry and academia.
Medicinal Chemistry
Medicinal Chemistry is a dynamic, multifaceted scientific discipline that is dedicated to the improvement of human health through research that leads to the design and development of safe and effective therapeutic, diagnostic, and environmental agents.
Research Areas
Biosafety/ biosecurity, cancer and neurological drug discovery, chemical neuroscience, chemoprevention and carcinogenesis, combinatorial biosynthesis, computer-aided drug design, drug metabolism, gene therapy, high-throughput screening, immunology, NMR, non-hormonal contraception, peptidomimetics and X-ray crystallography.
Faculty Spotlight: Courtney Aldrich
Dr. Aldrich received a $3.8 million NIH grant for the project "Siderophore Inhibitors for Tuberculosis that Block Mycobactin Biosynthesis" on which he is the sole PI. Also, his collaborative research was the focus of a LA times article.
Faculty Spotlight: Natalia Tretyakova
Dr. Natalia Tretyakova has been named a Distinguished McKnight University Professor.
Faculty Spotlight: Gunda Georg
Dr. Gunda Georg’s research towards male contraceptives was featured on several broadcast news outlets including the front page of the Star Tribune.
Institute for Therapeutics Discovery & Development
The ITDD carries out interdisciplinary research, helps educate the next generation of scientists, and enhances the biomedical research infrastructure by creating opportunities for drug discovery and early pre-clinical drug development.
Three of our graduate students were selected to receive the 2020-2021 Bighley Graduate Fellowship: Erik Faber (Georg Lab), Jian Tang (Harki Lab), and Nan Wang (Georg Lab). The fellowship supports exceptional graduate students working in the biomedical health sciences with an emphasis on collaborative and interdisciplinary work.
Dr. Kathryn Nelson has been selected to receive the Wallin Neuroscience Discovery Award as co-PI for her project "Bringing Breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s Disease to American Indian Communities." The award will provide $99,970 in total funding for the year.
A new 5-year R01 grant from the NIH/NICHD was awarded to Dr. Gunda Georg for the discovery of NaK-ATPase alpha4 inhibitors for non-hormonal male contraception. This is a collaborative project with Professor Gustavo Blanco at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
Pooja Hegde, a graduate student in the Aldrich lab, received an award for her entry in the University's 3-Minute Thesis Competition. Pooja was awarded the Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Education's Choice Award, which includes a $500 travel grant, for her thesis presentation "“Making PAS Great Again.”
Pages
Research Facilities
Make use of the Department's over 50,000 square feet of modern research laboratory space located within the Academic Health Center and the Biomedical Discovery District. Read more about our instrumentation, laboratories, facilities and faculty research.
Events
Student Spotlight: Jian Tang
Graduate student Jian Tang of the Harki Laboratory received a 2020-21 Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship.
Student Spotlight: Erik Faber
Erik Faber was selected to receive the 2021 Abul-Hajj/Hanna Exceptional Graduate Student Award in Medicinal Chemistry.