01 JANUARY 2013
E-NEWSLETTER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO COLLEGE OF PHARMACY AND PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES
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Medicinal Chemistry BS/MS
Dr. Paul Erhardt, DUP P.1 Building Bridges P.2
2012 welcomed the college‟s first students into the BS/MS in Medicinal Chemistry program. Students in this new program have the opportunity to complete both a BS and an MS degree in five calendar years. Students in the B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences program have the option of completing some of the graduate course work during their junior and senior years as part of this accelerated program. These students, who complete a required research internship during the summer after the junior year, continue their research with the same mentor during the graduate portion of the program. This offers undergraduate students who intend to pursue graduate studies an additional option for continuing their research with the faculty of the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
UT Migrant Programs P.3
Dr. Erhardt (center) with (L-R) Brian Kress, Neha Malik, Rachael Jetson, and Dr. Chris Trabbic.
Young Pharmacy Leaders P.4 A University Rising P.4
Distinguished University Professor Dr. Paul Erhardt, professor of Medicinal and Biological Chemistry and Director of the Center for Drug Design and Development (CD3) has been a faculty member at The University of Toledo for 18 years. He earned his B.A. in Chemistry and his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from University of Minnesota before accepting a postdoctoral position in bio-analytical chemistry at the University of Texas-Austin. He then spent almost 20 years in industry, rising to Assistant Director of Research and Development at Berlex Laboratories before joining the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (CPPS) in 1994. Dr. Erhardt is a medicinal chemist with an international reputation for his research in the area of drug design and development. In 2002, he was elected President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Division VII Chemistry and Human Health. In 2007, he was awarded the IUPAC Appreciation of Service Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Advancement of Worldwide Chemistry. He has displayed international leadership in Medicinal Chemistry, including presenting exciting new ideas and predicting future directions in the field. Dr. Erhardt was awarded a special gold medal to recognize his innovation in medicinal chemistry by the Indian
Society of Chemists and Biologists at the 2011 International Conference on Chemistry for Mankind. Dr. Erhardt‟s research career embodies highly creative and original work with many notable contributions. For example, his discovery and chemical development of esmolol (Brevibloc®) served to lay a solid foundation for his reputation among his peers. Esmolol, an ultra-short-acting beta blocker, is used primarily in surgeries, and the story of esmolol's discovery has been documented in the prestigious American Chemical Society series entitled Chronicles of Drug Discovery. He currently has a number of additional drug candidates in various stages of the drug development process in the Center for Drug Design and Development (CD3). Dr. Erhardt has been exceptionally successful in garnering extramural research funding from a variety of agencies, totaling about $7M; this includes strong support ($3.4M) from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), $600,000 from Pfizer and $636,000 from the U.S. Army. Dr. Erhardt has a notable body of research work: 77 papers published or in press, 32 issued patents and applications (14 from work at UT), and 32 published reviews and book chapters. In recognition of his outstanding and sustained research Continued on page 2