The opportunities in Pharmaceutical Chemistry for high impact discovery and design for human betterment have never been greater. The pioneers of this department were rooted in physical, computational, analytical, synthetic and enzyme chemistry. This faculty helped to forge modern approaches for structure-based drug and protein design, mass spectrometry, NMR spectroscopy and computer-aided visualization of macromolecules. The group has flourished from this base and currently represents world-class leaders in drug and protein design, de novo protein structure prediction, proteomics, and synthetic and chemical biology. We seek to innovate computational, chemical, and biochemical approaches to deepen our understanding of the principles of molecular recognition and cell circuit design. Our dream is for systematic and predictive algorithms to discover safe and effective pharmaceuticals, and for the construction of synthetic biosystems to understand and improve the human condition.

Latest Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department News:

Danica Fujimori, PhDi, a faculty member in the UCSF Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine has been named a 2011 Searle Scholar. Her UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty colleague, Bo Huang, PhD, earned the honor in 2010. The prestigious awards are given annually to 15 young biomedical scientists "who have already demonstrated innovative research with the potential for making significant contributions to biological research over an extended period of time." Scholars each receive $300,000 to support their research over a 3-year period.

New mass spectrometer reveals human proteins in greated detail. A box just four-feet square is the latest addition to the analytical armory of the National Bio-Organic Biomedical Mass Spectrometry Resource Center, which is directed by Al Burlingame, PhD, a faculty member in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the UCSF School of Pharmacy.

Zev Gartner to lead study on the interactions of cells in breast cancer. Zev Gartner, PhD, a faculty member in the UCSF School of Pharmacy, will lead a US$3.2 million grant to study the interaction of different types of cells in breast cancer at its earliest stages.

Please read more at The School of Pharmacy Website News Archive