Medicinal Chemistry

The IUPAC has defined medicinal chemistry "as a chemistry-based discipline, involving aspects of biological, medical and pharmaceutical sciences. It is concerned with the invention, discovery, design, identification and preparation of biologically active compounds, the study of their metabolism, the interpretation of their mode of action at the molecular level and the construction of structure-activity relationships". All these aspects are covered by the different research groups of our faculty. Whereas Schatzschneider´s lab is dealing with organometal and coordination compounds of anticancer and antibiotic properties, Seibel´s group is focusing on all aspects of glycoscience and Bringmann and coworker are looking for antiinfective compounds in nature, Decker is developing hybrid compounds often targeting more than one enzyme or receptor, and Holzgrabe is designing and developing antiinfective drugs to clinics. All groups are interested in the elucidation of the mode of action, and almost all groups take advantage of ligand- and structure-based design which is supported by Sotriffer´s and Engels´ dry labs. Moreover, pharmacokinetic aspects are in the focus of Högger´s groups and improvement of the bioavailability as well as drug delivery concepts are developed in Luxenhofer´s and Pöppeler´s lab as well as Meinel´s group, either by suitable polymers or by design of prodrugs with cleavable target addresses. The list of competences already discloses the possibilities of collaborations which are indeed alive in the faculty, not only in the past collaborative research center (SFB630) but also today.