Introduction to special issue in honor of Professor Povl Krogsgaard-Larsen.

Abstract

May 15, 2012 Professor Povl Krogsgaard-Larsen celebrated his 70th birthday. As described in the following commentary by Dr. Klaus P. Bogeso, Povl KrogsgaardLarsen has been a giant in medicinal chemistry and in order to honor his achievements we decided to invite a number of his close colleagues and alumni to write contributions for the present special issue of Neurochemical Research. Professor Povl Krogsgaard-Larsen has dedicated his scientific career to development of novel selective pharmacological tool compounds for neurotransmitter receptors and transporters with particular focus on the neurotransmitters glutamate, c-amino butyric acid (GABA) and acetylcholine. His starting points for the ligand design have either been the endogenous signaling molecules or compounds isolated from natural products such as the mushroom fly ageric (Amanita muscaria), which he has made analogs of by e.g. bioisosteric replacement, cyclization including extensive use of heterocycles and introduction of side-chains. Professor Povl Krogsgaard-Larsen was early to adopt the concept of binding sites and receptor/ transporter models/structures and use these as models for rational ligand design of new analogs with improved properties. He was also early in realizing that close integration of chemistry and pharmacology was pivotal for success. He thus focused on interdisciplinary research and has been a main driver for expanding the original Department of Chemistry hosting his group four decades ago to the present day Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, which includes medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, computational chemistry and X-ray crystallography. This interdisciplinary approach has led to development of Special Issue: In honor of Krogsgaard-Larsen.