Medicinal Chemistry

Overview

About this Degree

The research programs of the faculty cover an unusually broad range of scientific interests, including but not limited to Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry, Biochemistry and Peptide Chemistry, and Natural Products Chemistry.  For details about each faculty member's research, please visit their individual research pages.  The department's research programs are supported by an array of state-of-the-art instrumentation both within the department and in numerous core research laboratories that are staffed by highly experienced specialists.  

The breadth of possibilities for research and study in Medicinal Chemistry at KU is greatly enhanced by the department's close ties to other departments including Chemistry, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and Molecular Biosciences.  Active research collaborations and common graduate courses eliminate barriers and create a thriving and expansive scientific community at the University of Kansas.

University of Kansas Medicinal Chemistry graduates have contributed to the high esteem in which the department is held on both national and international levels.  Our graduates typically succeed in attaining postdoctoral positions in prestigious academic labs or the National Institutes of Health for further specialized training, after which they go on to positions in major pharmaceutical companies or take faculty positions in highly regarded universities.  For example, recent graduates from our program now hold positions at Eli Lilly, Biogen, Abbvie, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Pfizer, Celgene and others. Still other of our graduates now hold faculty positions at Rutgers University, Boston University, Northeastern University, Xavier University, and the Universities of Illinois, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Washington and Wisconsin.