Drug development and design
Drug design and development is a comprehensive term referring to the overall process of bringing a new drug to the market: from discovery of a new molecule with therapeutic promise in preclinical research through optimization of the chemical synthesis on large scale to human clinical trials and commercialization. As most drugs are commonly small organic molecules produced through chemical synthesis, the function of organic synthesis chemists within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries continues to be critical for the drug discovery process. While industrial drug discovery research continues to be pushed harder to speed the time from invention to candidate nomination, access to new synthetic methods and technologies continue to provide new innovative solutions for both medicinal and process research chemists alike. Some of the speakers featured in this symposium have been chosen from among leaders and experts in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology areas to share their experiences in drug design and development and to showcase the importance of organic chemistry to that process.
Sponsors
This session is being sponsored by Albany Molecular Research, Inc (AMRI), a company that provides scientific services, products and technologies focused on improving the quality of life.
Session organizer
R. Jason Herr, Ph.D., is an Associate Research Fellow within the Medicinal Chemistry Department of Albany Molecular Research, Inc (AMRI), a chemistry contract research organization (CRO) that provides scientific services including drug discovery, pharmaceutical development and manufacturing of active ingredients for many of the world's leading healthcare companies. Dr. Herr received his PhD in Organic Chemistry in 1994 from the Pennsylvania State University working under Professor Steven M. Weinreb. He then carried out postdoctoral research under Professor Douglass F. Taber at the University of Delaware, and then joined AMRI in 1996.
Confirmed speakers
- Mark Behnke, MLBehnke Consulting, Somerville, Massachusetts: “Rethinking natural products in the light of new synthetic methodologies.”
- Christopher Blackburn, Discovery, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts: “Optimization of the β5 potency and cellular activity of a series of non-covalent dipeptide inhibitors of the human 20S Proteasome guided by X-ray crystallography”
- Steven R LaPlante, Department of Chemistry, Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd., Laval, Quebec: “Discovering drugs, tools and interesting chemical properties”
- David D. Manning, Discovery Research & Development, AMRI, Albany, New York: “Novel 5-HT3 receptor modulators for the potential treatment of irritable bowel syndrome”
- Robert Norrie, Ph.D., cGMP Department, AMRI, “Fundamental concepts in scaling from milligrams to kilograms”
- Wenjun Tang, Chemical Development Department, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Ridgefield, Connecticut: “Recent development in catalysis at BI”
