Ahvaz Faculty of Pharmacy

 

Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences
School of Pharmacy

 

Medicinal Chemistry Department

Head of the Department: Dr. Mahsa Toolabi Dezfooli

Preface

Medicinal Chemistry or Pharmaceutical Chemistry is a chemistry-based discipline, involving aspects of the biological, medical and pharmaceutical sciences. It is concerned with the invention, discovery, design, identification and preparation of biologically active compounds, the study of their metabolism, the interpretation of their mode of action at the molecular level and the construction of structure-activity relationships (SAR), which is the relationship between chemical structure and pharmacological activity for a series of compounds. Medicinal chemistry is central to modern drug discovery and development. For most of the 20th century, the majority of drugs were discovered either by identifying the active ingredient in traditional natural remedies, by rational drug design, or by serendipity. As we have moved into the 21st century, drug discovery has focused on drug targets and high-throughput screening of drug hits and computer-assessed drug design to fill its drug pipeline.

Medicinal chemistry has advanced during the past several decades from not only synthesizing new compounds but to understanding the molecular basis of a disease and its control, identifying biomolecular targets implicated as disease-causing, and ultimately inventing specific compounds (called “hits”) that block the biomolecules from progressing to an illness or stop the disease in its tracks. Medicinal chemists use structure-activity relationships to improve the “hits” into “lead candidates” by optimizing their selectivity against the specific target, reducing drug activity against non-targets, and ensuring appropriate pharmacokinetic properties involving drug distribution and clearance.

 

Medicinal Chemistry Department

The Department of Medicinal Chemistry is one the oldest departments in the Faculty of Pharmacy in Ahvaz University which was established in 1987. At the moment, the Department includes 8 faculty members, one full professor, three associate professor, and four assistant professor. Other staff include several organic and analytical chemists with M.Sc. and B.Sc. degree who work in different laboratories of the Department. The Department of Medicinal Chemistry is required to provide a large part of the basic pharmaceutical courses in the field of chemistry, including general chemistry courses: 6 credits, organic chemistry: 8 credits, analytical chemistry: 3 credits, and instrumental analysis: 7 credits, Medicinal Chemistry: 9 credits, and physicochemical control (in collaboration with the control department): 3 credits. In addition, the Master of Science in medicinal chemistry has been set up by the department from the first semester of the academic year of 2015, and students are studying at the school of Pharmacy. The faculty members of this department direct students to PhD and research projects related to their research fields. The other fields of activity of the medicinal Chemistry department is teaching Instrumental Analysis, and Analytical Chemistry in in Ph.D. and Master Degrees in various disciplines such as Toxicology, Pharmacology, and food monitoring.

The members of this department collaborate in the research centers of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, such as Nanotechnology, marine sciences and toxicology centers. Also, the faculty members of the department are engaged in conducting research projects of industrial centers and dissertations of other universities such as Shahid Chamran University, Khorramshahr University of Marine Science, Zanjan Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), and Islamic Azad University.

In the postgraduate program, graduated students will be able to perform educational, research and service activities in the field of pharmaceutical raw materials, synthesis, drug design, drug control, synthesis of herbal substances and materials isolated from microorganisms.

 

The objectives of this major in the fields of education, research and services are as follows.

In the field of education:

- Training of human resources specialist in the field of pharmaceutical chemistry to meet the faculty members required for pharmacies in the country

- Training of expert human resources for research on the production of pharmaceutical raw materials and development of pharmaceutical industry in the country.

- Teaching chemistry and pharmaceutical chemistry courses and other related topics for students in Ph.D and MS.c.

 

In the field of research:

Participation in the design and implementation of research projects related to drugs

Contribute to the production of knowledge and publication of related articles in authoritative sources in the field of pharmaceutical chemistry

Discovery and validation of new anti-cancer, and anti-Alzheimer drugs

Computational modeling and simulation of biomolecular structures, dynamics and interactions

Isolation and identification of natural products

Application of Mass, NMR and other spectrophotometry techniques to the elucidation of natural products and small molecular structures

Development of new analytical methods for determination and identification of chemical compounds and drugs in different matrix.  

 

In the field of services:

- Applying techniques related to the production and use of drugs in a variety of ways, in collaboration with relevant field specialists
- Pharmaceutical factories

 

Graduate courses in Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department
The Master of Science in medicinal chemistry has been set up by the department from the first semester of the academic year of 2015 which was approved by the forty-seventh session of the Supreme Council for the Planning of Medical Sciences in Ministry of Health, and Medical Education.
The department also plays an active role in the field of research and teaching of the newly launched drug activities in pharmaceutical and marine compounds (natural, pharmaceutical, and marine compounds since 2015) at the School of Pharmacy.

 

How to admit a student?
Admission is done through the national examination.

 

Laboratory facilities and equipment

Spectrophotometer, Photometer, Centrifuge, Freezer- Dryer, Infrared Spectroscopy, HPLC, GC-Mass, AAs, UV, Rotary Evaporator, Heater Stirrer, pH meter, electrothermal digital melting points apparatu, Flame Photometer, and other devices including Incubator, Shaker and so on.

 

Information resources and references:
Library of the Faculty of Pharmacy
Central Library of the University
Journal: Jundishapur Journal of Natural Pharmaceutical products
Members of the Faculty of Pharmacy