Targeting Protein-Protein Interactions by Small Molecules

Chunquan Sheng is currently a Professor, Vice Dean of the School of Pharmacy and the Director of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at Second Military Medical University (SMMU), P. R. China. He received his PhD degree in Medicinal Chemistry (2005) from SMMU and then worked at the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy at SMMU. His research interests include structure-based design and synthesis of drug-like molecules with an emphasis on small molecule inhibitors of protein-protein interactions and multi-targeting drugs. He has published more than 100 research articles and invited reviews in prestigious journals in the field of medicinal chemistry and holds more than 10 patents. He was supported by several programs, including the National Outstanding Young Scholarship from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

Gunda I. Georg is Professor and Head of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and the founding Director of the Institute for Therapeutics Discovery and Development (ITDD) at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. She holds the Robert Vince Endowed Chair and the McKnight Presidential Chair in Medicinal Chemistry. She is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, the most cited journal in the field. Dr. Georg received a BS in Pharmacy (1975) and a PhD degree in Medicinal Chemistry (1980) from the Philipps University of Marburg, Germany. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Ottawa in Canada. After 22 years as a faculty member at the University of Kansas, she joined the University of Minnesota in 2007. Her research focuses on the design, synthesis, and evaluation of biologically active agents.