Aventis Lectures in Medicinal Chemistry

Thursday, March 29th, 2001
2049 Malott Hall 2:30 PM
Dr. C. R. Ganellin
Fellow of the Royal Society and SK&F Chair of Medicinal Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University College London; London, England.

"Design of Butabindide, the First Inhibitor of the Cholecystokinin (CCK-8) Inactivating Peptidase"

A generous gift from Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has allowed us to establish the AVENTIS LECTURES IN MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY at the University of Kansas. Each year a scientist from Aventis will visit KU to present aspects of their research work and once each year the faculty of our department will select one outstanding leader in the general area of medicinal and bioorganic chemistry to visit KU as the Aventis Lecturer.

The first distinguished scientist to be honored as the Aventis Lecturer will be Dr. C. R. Ganellin, Fellow of the Royal Society and SK&F Chair of Medicinal Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University College, London.

C. R. Ganellin received a first-class BSc in Chemistry from Queen Mary College, London University and a PhD in 1958 in Organic Chemistry under Professor Michael J. S. Dewar for research on tropylium chemistry. He spent a period in 1960 with Professor A. C. Cope as a Research Associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he devised the first direct optical resolution of chiral olefins using platinum complexes. He joined Smith Kline & French Laboratories (SK&F) in the UK as a medicinal chemist and, from 1966, he collaborated with Sir James Black and led the chemical research for the discovery of the H2-receptor histamine antagonists. He is co inventor of the drugs burimamide, metiamide, and cimetidine (Tagamet®) which revolutionized the treatment of peptic ulcer disease. He subsequently became Vice-President for Research at Welwyn. In 1986 he was awarded a DSc from London University for his published work on the medicinal chemistry of histamine and drugs acting at histamine receptors. In 1986 he was also made a Fellow of the Royal Society and appointed to the SK&F Chair of Medicinal Chemistry at University College London, a position he still holds.

As a medicinal chemist he has been especially concerned with applying physical organic chemistry to structure-activity analysis. His current work involves a wide range of topics including design of drugs acting at histamine H3 receptors, K+ ion channels, serotonin receptors, inhibitors of the cholecystokinin-inactivating peptidase, and ligands for the phosphatidylinositol transfer protein (PlTP) and Transport P. He is author or co-author of some 200 scientific publications and named co-inventor on over 160 US patents.

Dr. Ganellin also has a special interest in the teaching of medicinal chemistry and was the co-founder of the Summer Schools in Medicinal Chemistry which have been held biennially by the Royal Society of Chemistry since 1981 and, indeed, has lectured at every School since.

He is currently President of the Medicinal Chemistry Section of IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry).

Dr. Ganellin has received international recognition as a medicinal chemist including the RSC Medallion in Medicinal Chemistry, the Tilden Medal, the Adrien Albert Medal, the ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry Award, the Society of Drug Research Award for New Drug Discovery, the Society of Chemical Industry Messel Medal, and Le Prix Charles Mentzer (France). He has also been elected into the USA National Inventors Hall of Fame.