Medicinal Chemistry Interest Group

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The central goal of this research group is to determine the correlation of molecular architectures to biological functions with a focus on the relationships of synthetic or recombinant biomolecules to human health and diseases.  This includes design and synthesis of novel drugs, molecular modifications designed to target drugs to specific tissues, the role of metabolism in drug actions, application of NMR, EPR, SPR, and X-ray crystallography to probe molecular recognition at receptors, and molecular modeling studies that give dazzling insights into the design of novel agents.  University of Utah has one of the outstanding z. fish facilities in the world and provides an opportunity to rapidly screen and validate drug targets using z. fish as a model vertebrate organism.  Participating faculty members accept students from the graduate programs in Biological Chemistry, Molecular Biology or Neuroscience.    

Medicinal Chemistry Interest Group Activities

  • Seminars by visiting scientists
  • Weekly departmental research in progress
  • Advanced special topics class on drug design and drug discovery
  • Journal clubs

Core Facilities

  • Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics
  • NMR
  • Centralized Zebra fish Animal Resource Facility

Faculty/Laboratory Participants

Faculty members of the Medicinal Chemistry Interest Group are located throughout the campus.  Each member of the BCP, MBP or Neuroscience is affiliated with a specific department/institute/center within the University of Utah, and these departments/centers/institutes occupy space in several buildings on campus.

Centers of Excellence

Use this map, to see where these departments are located.