Lead Generation Approaches in Drug Discovery

This resource provides an integrated and comprehensive overview of modern approaches to drug lead discovery. Each chapter in this book reviews the theoretical background and application of a key technology in drug discovery, complemented by relevant case studies. The coverage includes the key approaches for drug design and discovery high-throughput screening, fragment screening, multi-target drugs, de novo design, ADMET, natural products. This cutting-edge reference helps medicinal chemists in biotech, pharmaceutical, and other research contexts consider all possible avenues in starting their drug research programs.

Zoran Rankovic is a Senior Research Fellow and Associate Director in Medicinal Chemistry at Schering-Plough Research Institute, UK. He received his PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Leeds (UK) before starting his medicinal chemistry career in 1995 at Organon, UK. Since then, working on projects over a range of therapeutic areas, including psychosis, analgesia, and cardiovascular and bone diseases, he gained extensive experience in all stages of the drug discovery process, including lead generation. From this work, Dr. Rankovic has authored or coauthored over fifty scientific publications, book chapters, and patents, and has given invited lectures at numerous international conferences. Richard Morphy is a medicinal chemistry section head at Schering-Plough Research Institute (SPRI) at Newhouse, Scotland. He has twenty years' experience in the pharmaceutical industry, previously working for Celltech and Organon on a wide range of oncology, inflammation, psychiatry, and analgesia projects. In addition to his extensive experience of the lead discovery process, he has a keen interest in the development of medicinal chemistry in emerging economies and is an opinion leader in the area of multi-target drug discovery.