Our Research

Research in the Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy spans activities in contemporary chemical biology and drug discovery and blends the principles and experimental techniques of chemistry and biology with computational science. While maintaining a traditional emphasis on the drug candidate, we integrate contemporary biological methods to merge small molecule and target biomolecule research. This approach allows for elucidation of disease pathways and mechanisms of drug action. Our program encompasses nearly all aspects of drug discovery, including bioactive natural products, organic chemistry, computational drug design, assay development, high throughput screening of chemical libraries, and studies in living cells.

With modern, sophisticated instrumentation in place to support a robust research program, CBMC researchers focus on

• synthesis and structure-activity characterization of pharmaceutically relevant small molecules and natural products;
• chemical biology studies of the properties of designed small-molecule ligands and their cognate drug targets, including proteins, nucleic acids, and glycoconjugates;
• combinatorial biochemistry and proteomics for the identification of novel signaling pathways and drug targets;
• structural biology and biomolecular dynamics of drug-protein interactions;
• chemo- and bioinformatics; and
• molecular modeling.

The division works closely with biotech and pharmaceutical companies in North Carolina’s Research Triangle and is a campus-wide leader in new scientific inventions. Discoveries made by CBMC investigators have led to three FDA-approved drugs, two spin-off companies, and several compounds in advanced phases of clinical trials for cancer and infectious diseases.

Growing Opportunities

Since 2003, our program has transformed into a worldwide leader in the emerging areas of chemical biology and academic drug discovery. Importantly, CBMC  has added eight new tenure-track faculty members over the past few years.  Of particular note, we successfully recruited Bryan Roth, PhD, (jointly with the  Department of Pharmacology in the School of Medicine) and David Lawrence, PhD, (jointly with the Departments of Chemistry and Pharmacology) as full professors. Roth is the principal investigator for the internationally recognized Psychoactive Drug Screening Program. Lawrence’s work is funded by three grants from the National Institutes of Health and focuses on understanding the biochemical processes of the cell. In October 2007, Stephen Frye, PhD, former worldwide head of discovery medicinal chemistry at GlaxoSmithKline, joined CBMC to lead the School’s new Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery.

Spurred in large part by the success of this new cadre of scientists, CBMC’s  research funding continues to grow. Highlighting CBMC’s efforts is the receipt of 148 grants worth more than $43 million over the past four years. This trend is part of the larger success story of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, which is ranked second nationally in federal research funding and has the number-two-ranked doctor of pharmacy program in the nation according to U.S. News &  World Report.

The division is renovating and expanding its research space. Since 2006 CBMC laboratories have expanded by more than 40 percent, with well over half of that being newly renovated. In January 2009, the School occupied an additional 75,000 square feet of state-of-the-art research space in the newly constructed Genetic Medicine Research Building and, in 2013, will occupy an additional 75,000 square feet in the Imaging Research Building.