Derek Lowe is a medicinal chemist working on preclinical drug discovery in the pharmaceutical industry. Lowe has published a blog about this field, "In the Pipeline", since 2002 [1] and is a columnist for the Royal Society of Chemistry's Chemistry World . [2]
Lowe (born in Harrisburg, Arkansas) got his BA from Hendrix College and his PhD in organic chemistry from Duke University on synthesis of natural products, before spending time in Germany on a Humboldt Fellowship. [3] [4]
Lowe was the one of the first people to blog from inside the pharmaceutical industry, with the approval of his supervisor and the company legal department, [5] and one of the first science bloggers. [6] By 2006, his blog had between 3,000 and 4,000 visitors per day during the workweek; he covered business matters, trends and issues in medicinal chemistry, and legal matters like patent law and regulation. [7] At that time he was working at a pharmaceutical company doing hit to lead medical chemistry work. [7] As of 2010 [update] his blog received between 15,000 and 20,000 page views on a typical weekday. [8] His response to a 2013 article in BuzzFeed that propagated chemophobia was widely cited. [9] [10] [11]
He serves on the editorial board of ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters and on the advisory board of Chemical & Engineering News . [12]
As of 2018 [update] he was working at Novartis; formerly he had worked for 10 years at Vertex, 9 years at Bayer, and 8 years at Schering-Plough. [4] [13] [14]
Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous molecule which exerts a biochemical or physiological effect on the cell, tissue, organ, or organism. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function. If substances have medicinal properties, they are considered pharmaceuticals.
In chemistry, a reagent or analytical reagent is a substance or compound added to a system to cause a chemical reaction, or test if one occurs. The terms reactant and reagent are often used interchangeably, but reactant specifies a substance consumed in the course of a chemical reaction. Solvents, though involved in the reaction mechanism, are usually not called reactants. Similarly, catalysts are not consumed by the reaction, so they are not reactants. In biochemistry, especially in connection with enzyme-catalyzed reactions, the reactants are commonly called substrates.
Curcumin is a bright yellow chemical produced by plants of the Curcuma longa species. It is the principal curcuminoid of turmeric, a member of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. It is sold as a herbal supplement, cosmetics ingredient, food flavoring, and food coloring.
In the fields of medicine, biotechnology and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which new candidate medications are discovered.
Total synthesis is the complete chemical synthesis of a complex molecule, often a natural product, from simple, commercially-available precursors. It usually refers to a process not involving the aid of biological processes, which distinguishes it from semisynthesis. Syntheses may sometimes conclude at a precursor with further known synthetic pathways to a target molecule, in which case it is known as a formal synthesis. Total synthesis target molecules can be natural products, medicinally-important active ingredients, known intermediates, or molecules of theoretical interest. Total synthesis targets can also be organometallic or inorganic, though these are rarely encountered. Total synthesis projects often require a wide diversity of reactions and reagents, and subsequently requires broad chemical knowledge and training to be successful.
Medicinal chemistry is discipline at the intersection of chemistry, especially synthetic organic chemistry, and pharmacology and various other biological specialties, where they are involved with design, chemical synthesis and development for market of pharmaceutical agents, or bio-active molecules (drugs).
A natural product is a chemical compound or substance produced by a living organism—that is, found in nature. In the broadest sense, natural products include any substance produced by life. Natural products can also be prepared by chemical synthesis and have played a central role in the development of the field of organic chemistry by providing challenging synthetic targets. The term natural product has also been extended for commercial purposes to refer to cosmetics, dietary supplements, and foods produced from natural sources without added artificial ingredients.
Vernalis Research develops and applies fragment and structure-based methods to drug discovery, and has generated cell active lead compounds and development candidates against biological targets in oncology, neurodegeneration, anti-infectives and inflammation.
Carolyn Ruth Bertozzi is a prolific American chemist known for her wide-ranging work spanning both chemistry and biology. She coined the term "bioorthogonal chemistry" for chemical reactions compatible with living systems. Her recent efforts include synthesis of chemical tools to study cell surface sugars called glycans and how they impact diseases such as cancer, inflammation, and viral infections like COVID-19. At Stanford University, she holds the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professorship in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Bertozzi is also an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and is the former Director of the Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience research center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She received the MacArthur "genius" award at age 33. In 2010, she was the first woman to receive the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Prize faculty award. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2005), the Institute of Medicine (2011), and the National Academy of Inventors (2013). In 2014, it was announced that Bertozzi would lead ACS Central Science, the American Chemical Society's first peer-reviewed open access journal, which offers all content free to the public. As an open lesbian in academia and science, Bertozzi has been a role model for students and colleagues.
Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for human disease. The company was founded in 1995 in The Woodlands, Texas under the name Lexicon Genetics, Incorporated by co-founders Professor Allan Bradley, FRS and Professor Bradley's postdoctoral fellow Arthur T Sands. The company has used its patented mouse gene knockout technology and extensive in vivo screening capabilities to study nearly 5,000 genes in its Genome5000 program and has identified over 100 potential therapeutic targets. Lexicon has advanced multiple drug candidates into human clinical trials and has a broad and diverse pipeline of drug targets behind its clinical programs. Lexicon is pursuing drug targets in five therapeutic areas including oncology, gastroenterology, immunology, metabolism, and ophthalmology.
A curcuminoid is a linear diarylheptanoid, a relatively small class of plant secondary metabolites that includes curcumin, demethoxycurcumin, and bisdemethoxycurcumin, all isolated from turmeric. These compounds are natural phenols and produce a pronounced yellow color that is often used to color foods and medicines. Curcumin is obtained from the root of turmeric.
Bruce Eliot Maryanoff FRSC is an American medicinal and organic chemist.
Richard Bruce Silverman is the Patrick G. Ryan/Aon Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University. His group's main focus is basic and translational research into central nervous system disorders and cancer. He is well known for the discovery of pregabalin, which is marketed by Pfizer under the trade name Lyrica. He is the author several books, including The Organic Chemistry of Drug Design and Drug Action, in its third edition and as of this date has more than 385 research publications, and more than 125 issued patents.
Bruce D. Roth is an American organic and medicinal chemist who trained at Iowa State University and the University of Rochester, and, at the age of 32, discovered atorvastatin, the statin-class drug sold as Lipitor that would become the largest-selling drug in pharmaceutical history. His honours include being named a 2008 Hero of Chemistry by the American Chemical Society, and being chosen as the Perkin Medal awardee, the highest honour given in the U.S. chemical industry, by the Society of Chemical Industry, American section in 2013.
Craig M. Crews is an American scientist at Yale University. He is the John C. Malone Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, and also holds joint appointments in the departments of Chemistry and Pharmacology. Crews is the Executive Director of the Yale Center for Molecular Discovery and a former Editor of the journal Cell Chemical Biology. His research interests focus on chemical biology, particularly on controlled proteostasis. Crews is a pioneer in the field of targeted protein degradation and his lab's research led to the development of the anti-cancer drug carfilzomib (Kyprolis). He is the founder of Arvinas, the first biotechnology company to bring PROTAC drugs into clinical trials.In 2019, he was named an American Cancer Society Research Professor at the Yale University.
Peter Wipf is the Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh. His research interests focus on the discovery of new pharmaceuticals. He is a Fellow of three learned societies.
Ned D. Heindel is an American chemist. He is the Howard S. Bunn Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Lehigh University, where he continues to do research. Heindel also works as a medical research consultant. Heindel's research focuses on diagnostic and therapeutic drug development. He served as president of the American Chemical Society in 1994, and has twice chaired the ACS Division for the History of Chemistry.
John J. Talley is an American medicinal chemist who was the lead chemist in the discovery of the COX-2 selective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug celecoxib and a co-inventor of amprenavir, a protease inhibitor used to treat HIV infection.
Peter Grootenhuis was a Dutch-American Medicinal Chemist. Grootenhuis was the Project Leader and Co-Inventor of Ivacaftor (VX-770), the first CFTR potentiator FDA approved drug to treat the underlying cause of Cystic Fibrosis (CF) in patients with certain mutations in the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) gene, who account for 4-5% of CF cases. Grootenhuis also led the Vertex team to subsequent discovery of Orkambi, the combination of Ivacaftor and Lumacaftor(VX-809), approved to treat CF in people with two copies of the F508del mutation. Most recently, Grootenhuis's team discovered Tezacaftor (VX-661) and Elexacaftor (VX-445), which in combination with Ivacaftor are the components of Trikafta, a drug approved by the FDA in 2019 to treat CF in more than 90% of CF patients. For Grootenhuis’ contributions to the discovery of these compounds, he was awarded the 2018 IUPAC Richter Prize, the American Chemical Society’s 2013 Heroes of Chemistry Award, and inducted into the American Chemical Society Division of Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame. Grootenhuis has contributed to the discovery of over 11 clinical candidates, co-authored more than 100 peer reviewed papers and is inventor of 65 + U.S Patents, and more than 50 EU Patents.
Jonathan Baell is an Australian medicinal chemist. He is a research professor in medicinal chemistry at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS), the Director of the Australian Translational Medicinal Chemistry Facility and a Chief Investigator at the ARC Centre for Fragment-Based Design. He is also the President of the International Chemical Biology Society. His research focuses on the early stages of drug discovery, including high-throughput screening (HTS) library design, hit-to-lead and lead optimization for the treatment of a variety of diseases, such as malaria and neglected diseases.