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About Us - Medicinal Chemistry

Message from the chair

Our mission is to create new knowledge for the discovery and development of new pharmaceutical drugs. Our faculty are nationally and internationally recognized for their innovative scientific contributions in basic and applied research.

Current faculty research areas include:

  • Discovery and validation for new anti-cancer drugs targeted at lipid signaling
  • Computational modeling and simulation of biomolecular structure, dynamics and interactions
  • Synthesis of novel anticancer and anti-HIV drugs
  • Chemical biology of cell surface-bound carbohydrates such as heparan, chondroitin, dermatan and keratan sulfates.
  • Discovery of marine natural products with anti-cancer activity
  • Synthesis and testing of novel anti-infective and anti-parasitic drugs
  • Application of mass spectrometry and NMR to the elucidation of protein, nucleic acid, and small molecule structures
  • Elucidating bacterial and fungal biosynthetic pathways to harness their medical potential
  • Synthesis and evaluation of novel biopolymers for site-targeted drug delivery
  • Fabrication of biocompatible materials for tissue engineering and wound repair

Darrell R. Davis, Ph.D

Medicinal Chemistry Department Chair

Medchem dean's message image collage molecules