On October 10th, 2018, Dr. Ahmed Thabet Negmeldin, Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy gave a talk titled “Modified SAHA (ZolinzaTM) analogs display unique isoform selectivity: Significance on the bench top and in the clinic” as a part of the College seminar series.
In his presentation, he discussed several of his projects in the field of medicinal chemistry and drug design where he worked on design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of several analogs of the FDA-approved drug SAHA (ZolinzaTM) for cancer treatment to explore the effect of the modifications on activity and/or selectivity. The structure activity relationship (SAR) of the synthesized compounds was discussed along with the observed differences in anti-cancer activity and HDAC isoform selectivity. He also talked about several computational studies and computer-aided drug design ideas in his presentation.
Synthesis of inhibitors targeting a specific enzyme that’s implicated in cancer can be useful as biological tools to understand the role of this enzyme in cancer. In addition, these inhibitors can act as lead compounds towards development of more effective anti-cancer drugs as part of the College of Pharmacy strategic plan to develop solution-focused research for public impact.
At the end of Dr. Ahmed’s presentation, Dr. Salem Chouaib, Director of Thumbay Research Institute for Precision Medicine (TRIPM) extended an invitation to him for collaborative research in the fight against cancer.
Dean Sherief Khalifa commented: I am happy to see The College of Pharmacy at GMU making significant progress in achieving its mission of excellence in research through partnerships. Adding new knowledge and producing peer reviewed publications with high impact is our tool of measuring success in this important domain.