Drug discovery: high throughput matters
Event preview: choosing your career path
 |
| Robotics helps increase the numbers of compounds made in drug hunting programmes |
Introduction to Drug
Discovery Chemistry (25 June 2008) is a one-day
course aimed at those facing a career
choice in their undergraduate or
graduate chemistry courses, or new
chemists within the pharmaceutical
industry aiming to learn more about
state-of-the-art methods.
Fresh-faced, newly graduated
chemists have two paths to choose
from: process chemistry or drug
discovery chemistry.
Process chemistry, the art of
bulk synthesis of fine chemicals on
the ton scale for commercial products,
will enthuse those who enjoy
chemical design and careful optimisation
to reduce costs by experimentation
and analysis.
Drug discovery chemistry involves
a much smaller scale of
compound synthesis, often just a
few milligrams in the first instance.
It involves problem solving
and a broad range of technologies,
such as robotics and
information technology, to design
drugs and handle data. Both
groups of chemists talk the same
language, but which is the correct
career for those facing a choice?
The development of ‘high
throughput biological screening’,
the ability to test thousands of
compounds in hours, and, in recent
times, the pressures of increasing
efficiency and effectiveness
found across the industry,
have led to a greater need for chemists
in drug discovery to make
more, individual, high purity samples.
Chemists in the industry have
found year on year that they are
expected to make arrays of compounds,
from 10 to 200+ at a time,
in shorter time scales, and also
(hopefully) new candidate drugs
for testing in the clinic.
The aim of the conference is to
provide expert lectures on the
types of chemistries and technologies
used in industry and what
the future holds. Lectures will
cover the following subjects:
- Chemical reactions suitable for
high throughput
- Real drug hunting examples
- Microwave synthesis
- Chemical scavengers
- Parallel purification
- Flow chemistry
Speakers from companies and
academia, including AstraZeneca,
Pfizer, GSK and Biotage, and
Professors Ian Baxendale and Mark
Bradley will paint a picture of the
cutting edge of high throughput
technology and its future. In addition,
representatives from commercial
companies will be available
to provide demonstrations of the
latest equipment and techniques.
- Introduction to Drug Discovery
will be held at AstraZeneca,
Charnwood, LE11 5RH, UK on 25 June 2008.
Dr Al Dossetter
SCI Young Chemists’ Panel
|
