Small Molecule Medicinal Chemistry: Strategies and Technologies

Because of their unique properties, small molecules have been useful tools for drug discovery and successful drugs on the market for decades. To fully leverage the potential of small molecules, all critical steps leading to an efficient lead identification and optimization need to be addressed with the most up–to–date information.

This is where Small Molecule Medicinal Chemistry: Strategies and Technologies comes in, helping medicinal chemists and their colleagues in the related fields derive more efficient and economic drugs applying knowledge of all processes and approaches towards a state of the art small molecule medicinal chemistry.
This book provides an overview of the field, with a focus on recent trends and up–to–date technologies for the identification and development of small molecule drugs. The all–inclusive set of successful techniques and methods is divided into 5 parts: access to new compound collections, new chemistries, lead identification strategies, technologies for medicinal chemistry optimization, and an overview of the chemical space beyond small molecules.

Stressing strategic and technological solutions to medicinal chemistry challenges, this book presents methods and practices for optimizing the chemical aspects of drug discovery. Among the key features, Small Molecule Medicinal Chemistry:

    Discusses benefits, challenges, case studies, and industry perspectives for improving drug discovery programs in terms of quality and costs
    Focuses on small molecules and their critical role in medicinal chemistry, reviewing chemical and economic advantages and challenges, as well as trends in the field from an industry perspective
    Discusses novel approaches and key topics, like screening collection enhancement, risk sharing, HTS triage, new lead finding approaches, diversity–oriented synthesis, peptidomimetics, natural products, and high throughput medicinal chemistry approaches

Werngard Czechtizky is the Head of Medicinal Chemistry of the German Hub of Sanofi, based in Frankfurt, Germany.  She has wide experience in lead generation and lead optimization for central nervous system, cardiovascular and diabetes targets, and her teams have been responsible for a number of leads and clinical candidates in these areas over the last years. She was educated at ETH Zürich and Harvard University, USA.

Peter Hamley is the global head of External Innovation and Sourcing for chemistry, computational chemistry, and screening technologies at Sanofi, based in Frankfurt, Germany.  He spent ten years at AstraZeneca in the United Kingdom, and then moved to Sanofi as a medicinal chemistry leader, building their automated chemistry capabilities and natural product technology. He was educated at Imperial College, London, the University of Cambridge and the University of Pennsylvania.