Medicinal and Biological Chemistry III

An introduction to the principles of medicinal chemistry including natural product isolation, lead generation, and lead optimisation will be presented. The principles of parallel and combinatorial synthesis will be described in this context. An overview of methods for protein structure determination will be provided, forming the basis of discussion of quantitative structure-activity relationships. The chemistry of a number of key biological processes (e.g. enzyme chemistry, action of antibiotics on membranes etc.) will also be presented, including an introduction to the arena of biomimetic organic chemistry. This section will emphasise how the principles of nature can be applied to the rational design of complex molecules. Bioinorganic chemistry will be presented, with a focus on electron transfer reactions in biological systems. Marcus theory of electron transfer will be introduced. Examples of electron transfer proteins will be given, including those containing haem moieties, copper centres, and iron sulfur clusters, and the importance of these proteins will be discussed, including their roles in the mitochondrial respiratory electron transfer chain.