UTSW Medicinal Chemistry Core

Overview of Services

The Medicinal Chemistry Core collaborates with investigators who are interested in using small molecules to test biological hypotheses and to discover new biological processes.

We often work closely with the High-Throughput Screening (HTS) Laboratory and Preclinical Pharmacology Core on preclinical drug discovery projects. Our efforts generally commence after an initial screen has been developed and executed in the HTS core. We work with the biologists and the HTS Core to select the most promising initial hits for further evaluation. Early stages of projects generally involve structure confirmation of resupplied hits and hit resynthesis.

Once hits are validated, we generally focus on three to five promising chemical scaffolds and seek to optimize them through iterative chemistry and biological testing. Through the process of chemical optimization, we heavily rely on the Pharmacology Core to evaluate metabolic stability, toxicity, in vivo pharmacology and solubility.


In addition to working with investigators who have completed HTS experiments, the Chemistry Core can assist investigators through the synthesis of chemical probes and structure determination.


In general, these efforts have two goals: discover a compound suitable for proof-of-concept studies in animals and construct a tool that will facilitate mode-of-action or biochemical studies.

The Medicinal Chemistry Core has contributed to five projects that have been licensed to pharmaceutical companies for further development, as well as numerous patents, publications, and grants.

Leadership

Joseph Ready, Ph.D.

Core Director

(214)648-0313

joseph.ready@utsouthwestern.edu

Location and hours of operation

Hours

Location

By appointment only.

Investigators interested in collaborating with the Medicinal Chemistry Core should contact Dr. Joseph Ready.

5323 Harry Hines Blvd

Room Y4.304

UT Southwestern Medical Center

Dallas, TX 75390-9038

Links and Resources

Medicinal Chemistry Core

Contacts