George A. Ellestad, Adjunct Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Chemistry at Columbia University, has been awarded the Medicinal Chemistry Award by the ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry. The award will be given on June 28 during the 30th National Medicinal Chemistry Symposium in Seattle. Ellestad spent most of his career at Lederle Laboratories in Pearl River, N.Y., which later became Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. One of his primary contributions was the unraveling of the DNA cleavage chemistry and mechanism of action of the potent enediyne-containing antitumor agent calicheamicin. His work on the structure and bioorganic chemistry of calicheamicin contributed to the development of Mylotarg® for the treatment of relapsed myeloid leukemia. Ellestad was also involved in the search for a new tetracycline that led to the antibiotic Tigecycline®.

Ellestad retired from Wyeth in 2004. His current research focuses on porphyrin-conjugated DNA to increase circular dichroism sensitivity for monitoring DNA conformational changes.

Professor Paul Hergenrother Receives 2006 David W. Robertson Award for Excellence in Medicinal Chemistry

The Division of Medicinal Chemistry of the American Chemical Society is pleased to announce that Professor Paul Hergenrother is the recipient of the 2006 David W. Robertson Award for Excellence in Medicinal Chemistry. This annual award, supported by Pfizer, Inc., is in memory of David W. Robertson, a widely respected, highly successful and creative medicinal chemist and is intended to recognize seminal contributions by young scientists to medicinal chemistry. The recipient must have had a primary role in the discovery of a novel therapeutic agent(s), target(s), theoretical concept(s) in medicinal chemistry or drug discovery, and/or made a significant scientific discovery that enhances the field of medicinal chemistry. Professor Hergenrother exemplifies these award qualifications and attributes of David W. Robertson.
Paul obtained his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Notre Dame, graduating in 1994. From there he went on to the University of Texas, Austin, where he obtained his PhD in Chemistry under the direction of Professor Stephen F. Martin in 1999. During his time in graduate school he worked on two distinct projects in the areas of biochemistry and organic synthesis: the elucidation of the catalytic mechanism of the enzyme phospholipase C, and the total synthesis of the antibiotic erythromycin B. He was a co-author on 14 publications during his graduate career, and was the recipient of an ACS graduate student fellowship from the division of organic chemistry. In 1999 he moved as an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow to the laboratory of Professor Stuart L. Schreiber in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, and in 2001 he joined the faculty at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Paul’s laboratory has been using small molecules to identify novel targets for the treatment of cancer, neurodegeneration, and drug-resistant bacteria. In 2004 his laboratory reported a novel approach to defeat drug resistant bacteria: the development of a small molecule that causes the elimination of the genes encoding the resistance-mediating proteins, thus re-sensitizing bacteria to standard antibiotics. His laboratory has also identified interesting compounds with potent activity against melanoma, colon cancer, and lung cancer, in addition to devising novel RNA binding ligands. For his work in the classroom, Paul has twice been named to the “List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students” at the University of Illinois, an honor accorded to approximately the top 10% of teachers on campus. For his efforts Paul has received several awards, most notably the NSF-CAREER Award, the Beckman Young Investigator Award, a Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the GlaxoSmithKline Chemistry Scholar Award, the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, and he was recently named as a top innovator under age 35 by Technology Review magazine.

Professor Hergenrother will be honored at an award symposium organized by the Division of Medicinal Chemistry at the 2006 Fall National Meeting of the American Chemical Society to be held in San Francisco, September 10-14, 2006.

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