Medicinal chemists in drug discovery

Lombardino JG, Lowe JA. The role of the medicinal chemist in drug discovery—then and now. Nat Rev Drug Discov 2004 3 853-62. 

Many advances have been made in computational ADME modeling. For many ADME properties, models now exist which provide reasonably good predictive quality and can be deployed to aid medicinal chemists in drug discovery projects. 

Middleton, D. The Role of the Medicinal Chemist in Drug Discovery Controlling the Controllables. 230th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, 2005 August 28-September 1, Washington, DC. 

An outstanding review of industry changes and their effects on the job of a medicinal chemist can be found in Lombardino, J.G., Lowe III, J.A. The role of the medicinal chemist in drug discovery—then and now. Nat. Rev. Drug Discov. 2004, 3, 853-862. 

Greenlee, W.J., Desai, M.C. The role of medicinal chemists in drug discovery. Curr. Opin. Drug Discovery Dev. 2005, 8, 419-420. 

Competitive intelligence-based lead generation has been utilized by medicinal chemists in drug discovery for a long time. Advantages of CILG include the large variety of published structures of bioactive molecules, its potential to... 

In Chapter 1, John Lowe details The Role of Medicinal Chemistry in Drug Discovery in the twenty first century. The overview should prove invaluable to novice medicinal chemists and process chemists who are interested in appreciating what medicinal chemists do. In Chapter 2, Neal Anderson summarizes his experience in process chemistry. The perspectives provide a great insight for medicinal chemists who are not familiar with what process chemistry entails. Their contributions afford a big picture of both medicinal chemistry and process chemistry, where most of the readers are employed. Following two introductory chapters, the remainder of the book is divided into three major therapeutic areas I. Cancer and Infectious Diseases (five chapters) II. Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases (six chapters) and III. Central Nervous System Diseases (four chapters). 

In drug discovery, a chemist usually begins by investigating compounds that have already shown medicinal value. A fruitful path is to find a natural product, an organic compound found in nature, that has been shown to have healing characteristics. Nature is the best of all synthetic chemists, with billions of chemicals that fulfill as many different needs. The challenge is to find compounds that have curative powers. These substances are found in different ways random or blind collection of samples that are then tested, or collection of specific samples identified by native healers as medically effective. 

Molecular structure and properties are key concepts in drug design, but they may not mean the same to all medicinal chemists, not to mention other researchers involved in drug discovery and development such as biochemists, pharmacologists and toxicologists (see Chapter 2). It is therefore the merit of this book to offer a rationalization of these concepts with a view to advocating their value and clarifying their use. 

Evaluation of enzyme inhibitors in drug discovery a guide for medicinal chemists and pharmacologists / Robert A. Copeland, p. cm. 

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