Gunda I. Georg, PhD

Professor Georg and her group have published over 250 scientific articles and are involved in the design, semisynthesis, total synthesis, and evaluation of biologically active agents. Current therapeutic areas include cancer, male and female non-hormonal contraception, cancer, and epilepsy. 

These projects require the development of synthetic methods, synthesis of natural products, and structure-activity studies aimed at improving the therapeutic efficacy of lead compounds, including natural products, and hits from high throughput screening. 

Interdisciplinary projects are a main focus in the Georg group, involving medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, screening, structure-based drug design, pharmacology, pharmaceutical chemistry and reproductive biology. Active collaboration exists between the Contraception Research Branch of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, several research groups at the University of Minnesota, and around the country.

Professor Georg is the PI of a NICHD P50 “Contraceptive Discovery, Development and Behavioral Research Center” that involves six institutions. She is the co-inventor of LusedraTM, which was marketed by Eisa Pharmaceuticals, of Minnelide, an anticancer agent in phase II clinical trials, and of Gamendazole, a male contraceptive agent in preclinical development.

Medicinal chemistry

2020 Gilead Alfred Burger Award in Medicinal Chemistry of the American Chemical Society. The award is granted for outstanding contributions in the field of medicinal chemistry. 

Professor Georg served as co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry of the American Chemical Society until December 2020.

She has served as a member of review panels for the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the American Cancer Society, and others. 

In 2017 she was inducted into the Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry of the American Chemical Society and named Research Exemplar by the Research Exemplar Project of Washington University in St. Louis. 

She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society.

In 2013 she received the Ernest H. Volwiler Research Achievement Award of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, was named a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, and was the International Chair of Therapeutic Innovation, Paris, France (LERMIT). 

She was the 2000 Sato Memorial International Award recipient of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan, and the 2001 Nolan and Gloria Sommer Award Winner (University of Nebraska).

Recent Named Lectures:

• 2019 G. Van Greene Distinguished Lecture, Mercer University, College of Pharmacy
• 2019 3M/Ronald A. Mitsch Lecture in Chemistry. Hamlin University, Saint Paul
• 2019 Matzuk Lecture, Baylor College of Medicine
• 2018 Sigma-Aldrich Lectureship, Northwestern University, Center for Innovation and Drug Discovery
• 2017 J. Doyle Smith / Larry Winter Lecture, Virginia Commonwealth University
• 2016 Varro E. Tyler Distinguished Lecture, Purdue University College of Pharmacy and Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
• 2015 Karcher-Barton-Aldrich Award Lecture, The University of Oklahoma, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• 2015 Nieuwland Lectureship, Department of Chemistry, Notre Dame University
• 2010 Henry A. Lardy Lecture, South Dakota State University Department of Chemistry
• 2010 Sosnovsky Distinguished Lectureship, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Department of Chemistry

• American Chemical Society
• Division of Medicinal Chemistry
• Division of Organic Chemistry
• American Association for the Advancement of Science
• American Association for Cancer Research
• International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry
• Deutsche Pharmazeutische Gesellschaft
• Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker
• Division of Medicinal Chemistry
• American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists
• Iota Sigma Pi
• Phi Lambda Upsilon
• Phi Beta Kappa

German

NICHD U54 HD093540, NICHD 1 R61 HD099743, 75N95019D00031, R01 HD012623

• US7,514,463
• WO2010129918 A8
• US20140323748 A1
• WO 2015/117024A1
• WO 2016/149540 A1

PubMed

Faber, E. B.; Tian, D.; Burban, D.; Levinson, N. M.; Hawkinson, J. E.; Georg, G. I. Cooperativity Between Orthosteric Inhibitors and Allosteric Inhibitor 8-Anilino-1-Naphthalene Sulfonic Acid(ANS) in Cyclin-dependent Kinase 2. ACS Chem. Biol. 2020, 15, 1759-1764.

Holth, T. A. D.; Walters, M.; Hutt, O. E.; Georg, G. I. Diversity-Oriented Library Synthesis from Steviol and Isosteviol-Derived Scaffolds. ACS Comb. Sci. 2020, 22, 150-155. DOI: 10.1021/acscombsci.9b00186.

Wang, N.; Faber, E. B.; Georg, G. I. Synthesis and Spectral Properties of 8-Anilinonaphthalene-1- Sulfonic Acid (ANS) Derivatives Prepared by Microwave-Assisted Copper(0)-Catalyzed UllmanReaction. ACS Omega 2019, 4, 18472-18477.

? Syeda, S. S.; Sánchez, G.; Hong, K. H.; Hawkinson, J.; Georg, G. I.; Blanco, G. Design, Synthesis, In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluation of Ouabain Analogs as Potent and Selective Na,K- ATPase a4 Isoform Inhibitors for Male Contraception.J. Med. Chem. 2018, 61, 1800-1820.

? Paulson,C. N.; Guan,X.; Ayoub,A. M.; Chan, A.; Karim, R. M.; Pomerantz,W. K. C.;Schönbrunn, E.; Georg,G. I.; Hawkinson, J. E.Design, Synthesis and Characterization of a Pan- BET Fluorescent Polarization Bromodomain Probe. ACS Med. Chem. Lett. 2018, 9, 1223-12229.

The Institute for Therapeutics Discovery and Development