Serendipity and Persistence: Discovery of an orally-active antimalarial by optimization of the tetrahydro-beta-carboline scaffold by Paul Carlier, Professor of Chemistry at Virginia Tech

 The Department of Chemistry Presents, via Webinar:  Paul Carlier, Professor of Chemistry, Virginia Tech and Director, Virginia Tech Center for Drug Discovery

Malaria is an ancient disease that still kills nearly 450,000 persons annually, 90% of whom are children under 5 years of age. Great progress has been made over the last 15 years, but drug-resistance threatens to reverse these gains. Until an effective vaccine is widely available, new therapeutics with novel mechanisms of action are critical to prevent dramatic increases in mortality.  In this talk I will present our work on optimizing two distinct antimalarial pharmacophores, presenting lessons learned and surprises along the way.

BIO

Dr. Carlier is Professor of Chemistry at Virginia Tech, where he leads a research group focused on the design, organic synthesis, and evaluation of anti-infective agents.  He is also the Director of the Virginia Tech Center for Drug Discovery, which seeks to foster collaborative research on novel therapeutics. Prior to coming to Virginia Tech, Dr. Carlier served on the faculty of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.  He received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a co-author on over 100 publications in organic and medicinal chemistry, and has 10 issued U.S. Patents.