Drug Design and Development: Part II: Reflections from an Academic-based Center
Paul Erhardt · Chemistry International · 2015
As a follow-up to a previous issue of Chemistry International , which conveyed a feature article about the University of Toledo’s Center for Drug Design and Development (UT’s CD3) accompanied by a conference report on its special anniversary celebration [ CI 2014, Vol 36, No 6, p. 8 and 27, respectively], I am delighted to share a few insights that I have gained while serving as the CD3’s Director during the last 20 years. Intended for IUPAC readers and the medicinal chemistry community at large, my comments may be particularly useful for the numerous academic-based drug discovery centers bursting upon the scene of today’s pharmaceutical enterprise. I will focus upon just three topics: people, people, and people. As I have emphasized repeatedly within the CD3’s newsletters, it is our active participants who constitute the true heart-beat of our academic-based, core resource center. And I submit that it is only the enthusiasm of these active participants that can make an R&D center successful over time, regardless of a given technology’s promising utility or a parent institution’s array of physical resources and prestigious reputation. In this regard the CD3 is extremely fortunate to have been blessed with a long list of talented people who have always been committed to selflessly working together as a team to accomplish common goals in a collaborative manner.