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.