Drug discovery is a constantly developing and expanding area of research. Developed to provide a comprehensive guide, the Handbook of Medicinal Chemistry covers the past, present and future of the entire drug development process. Highlighting the recent successes and failures in drug discovery, the book helps readers to understand the factors governing modern drug discovery from the initial concept through to a marketed medicine. With chapters covering a wide range of topics from drug discovery processes and optimization, development of synthetic routes, pharmaceutical properties and computational biology, the handbook aims to enable medicinal chemists to apply their academic understanding to every aspect of drug discovery. Each chapter includes expert advice to not only provide a rigorous understanding of the principles being discussed, but to provide useful hints and tips gained from within the pharmaceutical industry. This expertise, combined with project case studies, highlighting and discussing all areas of successful projects, make this an essential handbook for all those involved in pharmaceutical development.

The Practice of Medicinal Chemistry, Fourth Edition provides a practical and comprehensive overview of the daily issues facing pharmaceutical researchers and chemists. In addition to its thorough treatment of basic medicinal chemistry principles, this updated edition has been revised to provide new and expanded coverage of the latest technologies and approaches in drug discovery.With topics like high content screening, scoring, docking, binding free energy calculations, polypharmacology, QSAR, chemical collections and databases, and much more, this book is the go-to reference for all academic and pharmaceutical researchers who need a complete understanding of medicinal chemistry and its application to drug discovery and development. - Includes updated and expanded material on systems biology, chemogenomics, computer-aided drug design, and other important recent advances in the field - Incorporates extensive color figures, case studies, and practical examples to help users gain a further understanding of key concepts - Provides high-quality content in a comprehensive manner, including contributions from international chapter authors to illustrate the global nature of medicinal chemistry and drug development research - An image bank is available for instructors at www.textbooks.elsevier.com

This is an valuable introduction to medicinal chemistry for new graduates and PhDs. It will also serve to update more experienced scientists on the newer technologies in the field.

Drug discovery is all about finding small molecules that interact in a desired way with larger molecules, namely proteins and other macromolecules in the human body. If the three-dimensional structures of both the small and large molecule are known, their interaction can be tested by computer simulation with a reasonable degree of accuracy. Alternatively, if active ligands are already available, molecular similarity searches can be used to find new molecules. This virtual screening can even be applied to compounds that have yet to be synthesized, as opposed to "real" screening that requires cost- and labor-intensive laboratory testing with previously synthesized drug compounds. Unique in its focus on the end user, this is a real "how to" book that does not presuppose prior experience in virtual screening or a background in computational chemistry. It is both a desktop reference and practical guide to virtual screening applications in drug discovery, offering a comprehensive and up-to-date overview. Clearly divided into four major sections, the first provides a detailed description of the methods required for and applied in virtual screening, while the second discusses the most important challenges in order to improve the impact and success of this technique. The third and fourth, practical parts contain practical guidelines and several case studies covering the most important scenarios for new drug discovery, accompanied by general guidelines for the entire workflow of virtual screening studies. Throughout the text, medicinal chemists from academia, as well as from large and small pharmaceutical companies report on their experience and pass on priceless practical advice on how to make best use of these powerful methods.