ACS AMA: Hi, Reddit! I am Donna Huryn, a medicinal chemist at the
University of Pittsburgh’s School of Pharmacy. Ask me anything about
medicinal chemistry / drug discovery in academia.
Abstract
ACS AMA Hi Reddit! My name is Donna Huryn. I am a medicinal chemist at
the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Pharmacy and have an adjunct
appointment at the University of Pennsylvania’s (Penn’s) Chemistry
Department. I received my Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at Penn, then spent
the first part of my career as a medicinal chemist in the pharmaceutical
industry, working on inventing drugs to treat HIV, cancer, Alzheimer’s
disease and other CNS disorders. In 2004, I moved to academia. Currently
we work on medicinal chemistry projects focusing on new treatments for
cancer and kidney disease. I am PI of the University of Pittsburgh
Chemical Diversity Center – we are a member of NCI’s Chemical Biology
Consortium (https://next.cancer.gov/discoveryResources/cbc.htm). This
consortium brings together experts in multiple disciplines to focus on
drug discovery for cancer, with the goal of advancing compounds into
Phase I clinical trials. Our group in Pittsburgh contributes our
medicinal, synthetic and computational chemistry expertise to various
projects; other centers bring expertise in biological assays,
biophysics, pharmacokinetics and animal models, among others. I also am
one of the Associate Editors of ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters
(http://pubs.acs.org/journal/amclct), which publishes short, urgent
communications in all areas of medicinal chemistry. Ask me anything
about medicinal chemistry / drug discovery in academia. I’ll be back at
12pm EDT (9am PDT, 4pm UTC) to answer your questions. [EDIT] - Hello
Reddit! Thanks for the great questions so far - looking forward to a
stimulation hour [EDIT] - Thanks Reddit! It was a great hour. I am
signing off now, but will try to come back to answer a few other
questions later in the day.