One time-honored technique for finding new drugs is isolating natural products and screening them for desirable properties—like anticancer activity. Organic chemists then develop methods for recreating the natural product in the laboratory, and for making derivatives that may be more potent or have other desirable properties.

Synthesizing biologically active molecules requires sophisticated technical skills as well as imagination and a broad knowledge of chemical techniques. John Wood, who holds an endowed chair in chemistry at Baylor University, was recruited in 2013 from Colorado State University with a Recruitment of Established Investigator Award from CPRIT. He views his primary role in academia as training the next generation of synthetic organic chemists.

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One time-honored technique for finding new drugs is isolating natural products and screening them for desirable properties—like anticancer activity. Organic chemists then develop methods for recreating the natural product in the laboratory, and for making derivatives that may be more potent or have other desirable properties.

Synthesizing biologically active molecules requires sophisticated technical skills as well as imagination and a broad knowledge of chemical techniques. John Wood, who holds an endowed chair in chemistry at Baylor University, was recruited in 2013 from Colorado State University with a Recruitment of Established Investigator Award from CPRIT. He views his primary role in academia as training the next generation of synthetic organic chemists.

The molecules that he and his research team are trying to synthesize are all isolated from nature: for example, from a marine organism, a soil microbe, or a plant. In addition to their biological activity, like anticancer or antifungal properties, a major criterion for choosing targets is the complexity of the structure and the challenge it will pose for students.

“We can never guarantee that the molecules or derivatives we prepare are going to be important,” Wood says, “but there is a 100 percent chance that these students will be well-trained for a career in industry where they will develop the next generation of drugs.”

While at Baylor, Wood has also built the CPRIT Synthesis and Drug Lead Discovery laboratory, where organic-synthesis reaction conditions can be tested in a high-throughput manner. The lab can also aid entrepreneurs or academic collaborators in pioneering novel drug syntheses. The facility increases the speed with which new drug candidates can be prepared, thereby lowering the cost, and also allows rapid synthesis of derivatives that can be screened for biological activity.

One of the natural products Wood and his lab have synthesized is an antifungal compound isolated from a sea sponge. During chemotherapy, many cancer patients are prone to developing systemic fungal infections, and Wood thinks this compound may eventually lead to the development of a new class of antifungal drugs that may help in treating these systemic infections.

Although he acknowledges the potential importance of the compounds under study in his laboratory, Wood is passionate in saying that he views his primary purpose at Baylor as a nurturer of talent. He hopes the CPRIT investment in higher education will continue to pay off by bringing new commercial activity to Texas, not only because there is intellectual property available to license but also because there are people who are trained to work in the industry.

When Wood contemplated a move to Texas from Colorado, a major motivating factor was Baylor’s clear commitment to supporting research, and its investments in creating new programs, building facilities, and developing infrastructure. He saw an opportunity to grow a program that would not have been possible in Colorado.

“CPRIT is an example of Texas’s dedication to higher education and research,” Wood says. “And its existence has made it much easier to attract senior investigators to our research program. CPRIT provides an extra incentive for scientists to apply, and when they see the degree of interest in research and the great facilities, they come whether they get their own CPRIT funding or not.”

Wood received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. He was a professor of chemistry at Yale University for 13 years before moving to Colorado State in 2006.

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