Michael Bodkin
Lilly Research Centre
Erl Wood Manor Sunninghill Road
Windlesham
Surrey GU20 6PH
m.bodkin@lilly.com
An examination of the latest issues of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry suggests that computational chemistry is making a significant impact on the drug discovery process. Over the years there has been a significant increase in the number of reported medicinal chemistry papers that also include some aspect of computational chemistry analysis in their report. However, this begs the question of how much of this computational work is a retrospective analysis and how much is adding real value and driving the medicinal chemistry effort? Ask a computational chemist and he will probably tell you a different story to that of a medicinal chemist. If such a discontinuity exists then why, where and how does it arise? How many medicinal chemists involve computational chemistry in their decision-making and if not, then why not? This talk will attempt to put the moose on the table and highlight the true nature of the relationship between medicinal and computational chemists.
It has been well acknowledged that drug discovery is a multi-dimensional problem. Computational chemistry should be well placed to provide a solution yet is it currently employed to its maximum potential? This talk will discuss the use of web tools as a strategy for allowing medicinal chemists to perform their own computational tasks. Does the empowerment of the medicinal chemist outweigh the disadvantages created by the freedom of such an approach?