Medicinal Chemistry

CWHM, in partnership with our colleagues from Medicinal Chemistry Group at the University of Missouri St. Louis (UMSL), has access to state of the art chemistry facilities.  We are an accomplished medicinal chemistry group with significant expertise in the design of compounds with the appropriate safety, pharmacokinetic and pharmaceutical properties required for human development.  Our group has extensive project experience in multiple therapeutic areas including inflammatory diseases, central nervous system disorders, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.  Together we have a track record of delivering compounds for clinical trials starting from screening hits, early leads or advanced compounds.  We  welcome collaboration on medicinal chemistry design as well as to utilize our medicinal chemistry skills as applied to neglected or orphan disease targets.

An effective medicinal chemistry program requires close interaction with in vitro biologists and in vivo pharmacologists to drive enzyme/receptor potency and selectivity, along with cell and in vivo activity.  Our pharmacokinetics, distribution and metabolism (PDM) group ensures that compounds  have appropriate metabolic properties consistent with the intended method of delivery.  Our n vivo pharmacology group evaluates analogs  in appropriate preclinical proof of concept disease models.  Furthermore, the chemistry group works with external providers to ensure that the lead analogs have the appropriate safety profile to support studies in human.

Structure Based Drug Design

CWHM chemists have considerable expertise in structure-based drug design (SBDD).  We have applied SBDD in multiple projects spanning a wide range of therapeutic targets.  Capabilities for large molecule crystallography exist within Saint Louis University’s biochemistry department, and are already being applied on a new target for malaria.  We have collaborations in place with computational chemists to further enhance analog design, and the CWHM has the appropriate in silico tools for generation of docking models to support both design and virtual screens.  We are available for consultation in medicinal chemistry design using SBDD tools to drive targets towards the treatment of neglected and orphan diseases.