Unusual Undergraduate Training in Medicinal Chemistry in Collaboration between Academia and Industry

Globalization has driven new paradigms for drug discovery and development. Activities previously carried out predominantly in the United States, Europe, and Japan are now carried out globally. This has caused considerable change in large pharma including how medicinal chemists are trained. Described here is the training of chemistry undergraduates in medicinal chemistry (as practiced in industry) in two modules developed in collaboration between the University of Nottingham (UoN) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The students complete several design-synthesize-test iterations on medicinal chemistry projects where they carry out the design and synthesis, and GSK tests the compounds. Considerable emphasis is placed on standard design properties used within industry. The modules are popular with the students and usually oversubscribed. An unexpected benefit has been the opportunities that have emerged with research and commercial potential. Graduate and postgraduate training of medicinal chemists at GSK is also briefly described.