Medicinal Chemistry

"Our position at the tip of Africa puts medicinal chemistry at Rhodes University in an important context. On the one hand we have access to enormous bio-diversity both on land and in the ocean, which facilitates exciting research in the isolation and characterisation of natural products, particularly those from marine sources, and on the other hand, we find ourselves driven to synthetic chemistry within the context of diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis, cancer, diabetes, and malaria.

Consequently many of the medicinal chemistry initiatives in the department are concentrated on developing organic compounds with medicinal potential (often heterocyclic compounds), against these disease targets.
Some of the work is done under the auspices of the NRF Chair in Medicinal Chemistry (Professor Nyokong). Other aspects of this research are done in collaboration with the Centre for Chemico and Biomedicinal Research (CCBR) at Rhodes University involving the expertise of colleagues in Biochemistry, Microbiology and Pharmacy.
Still other aspects include the development NMR techniques for protein target identification, as well as strategies for improved drug delivery.
Interested researchers and students can contact Dr Klein (r.klein@ru.ac.za), Dr Khanye (s.khanye@ru.ac.za), or Prof Nyokong (nanotechnology@ru.ac.za) for further information.

Last Modified: Tue, 20 Apr 2021 11:10:06 SAST