New Programs
Explore our new B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacy Technician Training Program.
Medicinal Chemistry
Faculty and Staff
Our department is made up of eleven full-time teaching and research (T&R) faculty members, three full-time staff members, two administrative faculty members, and numerous postdoctoral fellows, as well as both adjunct and affiliate faculty, all of whom contribute to our mission to achieve excellence in our professional and graduate programs through innovative education and leading-edge research.
Graduate Programs
We offer programs leading to the Master of Science and the Doctor of Philosophy in pharmaceutical sciences. These programs provide the preparation and research experience for academic, governmental and industrial careers.
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Contact us
Suite 205, Biotech I
Virginia Biotechnology Research Park
800 E. Leigh Street
Box 980540
Richmond, VA 23298-0540
Umesh Desai, Chair
Phone: (804) 828-6448
Fax: (804) 828-7625
Medicinal Chemistry
Medicinal chemistry is the science of understanding and designing new and more potent therapeutic agents to address modern problems in health and medicine. This is accomplished through a multidisciplinary approach including techniques such as organic synthesis, high-throughput screening, computational modeling, and structure based drug design. Medicinal chemistry involves the use of a variety of biochemical and analytical methods, and researchers get hands-on experience with cutting-edge instrumentation and analysis. The invention of new drugs takes many years of effort, and medicinal chemists play perhaps the most important role in their development. A medicinal chemist learns and studies how the drug interacts with a target, and uses this knowledge to optimize the activity for human use. Graduates of the VCU Medicinal Chemistry program are highly valued in both industry and academia, given the breadth of knowledge they learn throughout their training.
Research
Allosteric Interactive Drugs
Anti-cancer and Anti-HIV Drug Development
Anticoagulants and Enzyme Mechanism
Behavioral Effects of Drugs
Bioinformatics
Centrally-acting Agents
Chemical Biology
Drug Discovery
Drugs of Abuse
Molecular Modeling and Drug Design
Natural Product Synthesis
Next Generation Antibiotics
QSAR Technology Development
RNA-Drug Interactions
Structural Biology