Christopher A. Lipinski Chosen for First David Chu Lectureship

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Christopher A. Lipinski, an internationally renowned scientist in the field of drug discovery, on April 10 presented the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences' inaugural David Chu Lecture.

The lecture honors David C.K. Chu, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus in the Department of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, at the University of Georgia, who received a PhD in medicinal chemistry in 1975 from the UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Chu has published more than 300 drug-discovery related scientific papers and more than 50 U.S. patents have been awarded to him. Several of his invented compounds are undergoing clinical trials in the therapeutic areas of cancer, hepatitis B virus, HIV and Herpes zoster (shingles).

Chu and his wife, Jane, who received her MS in medicinal chemistry from UB's pharmacy school, established the David Chu Lectureship in 2011 to give back to their alma mater. It is one of several initiatives the couple and their daughters, Susan and Jackie, hope to fund through their recently created Chu Family Foundation.

"After 40 years of working in the United States, we fulfilled the American dream, and in addition to hard work, the major reason we succeeded was the education we received," Chu said. "Thus, we believe that giving to education and young students is the most important investment we can make. We set up the lectureship to help the aspiring graduate students in the UB pharmacy school. We believe seminar programs are critical in training graduate students, exposing them to prominent scientists."

The inaugural lecture by Lipinski was a presentation titled "Drug Discovery and Chemical Biology: Lessons Learned and Times of Change."

A PhD in physical organic chemistry, Lipinski worked at Pfizer for more than 20 years, contributing to the discovery of numerous drug candidates. His primary interests are the design of bioisosteres, drug physical chemical properties and quantitative structure activity relationships.

Among his many achievements is a set of rules he published 1n 1997 for the properties of well-absorbed drugs. The publication of these rules -- known as "Lipinski's Rule of 5" -- is one of the most highly cited publications in the field of medicinal chemistry.

Lipinski also has championed a pragmatic, chemistry end-user-oriented approach to the problem of oral activity improvement.

He has more than 265 publications and invited presentations, and has been issued 18 U.S. patents.