Welcome to the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy
The Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy is located in the College of Pharmacy, and is an integral part of the University of Illinois at Chicago Health Science Center. The two graduate programs that constitute the core teaching mission of the department are Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy. The Medicinal Chemistry program includes research in traditional synthetic medicinal chemistry but also incorporates cancer biology and neuroscience research. Pharmacognosy is the study of the chemistry, biochemistry, biology, taxonomy, and ethnobiology of natural products from plant, marine and other life origins. The overarching aim of research programs in the two complementary areas is translational drug discovery. The scopes of both fields are sufficiently broad to give students with many different science backgrounds a rewarding and challenging program of study. Areas of active interest include natural products chemistry, organic synthesis of medicinal agents, computational chemistry, structural biology, cell and molecular biology, drug metabolism, bioanalytical and molecular toxicology, and animal models. Our current research foci are cancer, women’s health, neurodegenerative and related psychiatric disorders, and anti-infectives.
The School of Pharmacy, University of London is the only free-standing specialist school in the UK dedicated entirely to teaching and research in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences; with world-class teaching and a top rated research quality profile. Its mission is to lead in education, research and policy development that benefits patients and healthcare practice, medicines discovery and development, and society; focusing on four key areas – Drug Discovery, Formulation Sciences, Neuroscience, and Medicines Use and Health; and help develop new areas of significance, such as Behavioural Medicine, Paediatric Pharmacy, Gene Therapy and Nanomedicine.
