The University of Washington School of Pharmacy was honored to host the 30th National Medicinal Chemistry Symposium from June 25-29 on the UW campus. Over 517 individuals attended the event, most from industry, nearly 15 percent of which came from international organizations.<\/p>\n
The four-day Symposium included two poster sessions, seven speaker sessions, an awards ceremony and many additional opportunities for guests to mingle and meet while enjoying the beauty of a Pacific Northwest summer. “Our goal [for the Symposium] was to create a meeting that was interesting scientifically, and to also provide opportunities to meet new scientists and renew old acquaintances,” explained Wendel Nelson, Medicinal Chemistry professor and chair of the event.<\/p>\n
The speaker sessions focused on important physiological and therapeutic targets, technological methods and a late breaking session with reports on new drug candidates. Topics included Type 2 diabetes treatment, improving failing memory, microfluidics\/nano scale drug discovery, stopping virus entry, sodium channel blockers and late breaking results. George Ellestad, Columbia University alumnus and Wyeth retiree, was awarded the ACS Med Chem Division Award for his work on natural products.<\/p>\n
The symposium was a great success and as Medicinal Chemistry chair Allan Rettie described, “One that provided our students and faculty access to cutting edge drug discovery and development practiced in both academic and pharmaceutical industry environments.”<\/p>\n
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