Postdoctoral Fellow (Medicinal Chemistry)

Summary:

The School of Pharmacy has a 120-year tradition beginning with the Medical College of Virginia and continuing to the present. Ranked in the top 20 of Schools of Pharmacy nationwide, the school is dedicated to graduating outstanding future pharmacists and scientists who will improve human health, foster exemplary research and provide sustaining contributions to interprofessional patient care.

The school is an integral part of an academic medical center, with an emphasis on interprofessional education and training in health care models of the future. There are research programs in diverse areas such as medicinal chemistry and drug discovery, drug delivery, clinical sciences, health policy and outcomes. The program has an exceptional balance of practice and community engagement along with basic and applied pharmaceutical research.

This full-time position supports the objectives of the Bioanalytical Shared Resource Laboratory.

Position Responsibilities:

The Department of Medicinal Chemistry invites you to apply for the postdoctoral fellow position to work in the laboratory of Professor Yan Zhang, School of Pharmacy, Virginia Commonwealth University. We are seeking a highly motivated synthetic organic chemist, medicinal chemist, or computational chemist to join our drug design, discovery, and development program. Dr. Zhang’s lab is conducting highly interdisciplinary research focused on pre-clinical development of novel drug candidates, where we apply chemical synthesis, medicinal chemistry, biochemical and biophysical assays, and computational chemistry interactively. The successful candidate will be involved in design, synthesis, and characterization of small molecule targeting G-protein coupled receptors mainly.

Required Qualifications:

• PhD degree in synthetic organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, computational chemistry, or related areas.
• Design, synthesis, and biological characterization of novel lead compounds to develop drug candidates in treating varies types of diseases, including substance use disorders, cancer, AIDS, and other neurological disorders.
• Extensive experience in designing synthetic routes for novel compounds, solving challenging synthetic problems, and SAR analysis required.
• Be able to apply NMR, IR, HPLC, and MS methods to solve organic chemistry inquiries.
• Ample experience in computational chemistry, molecular modeling, and structure-based molecular design.
• Excellent English oral and written communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Excellent track of record of publication in the related research areas
• Grant application experience
  
  

Typical Physical and Cognitive Requirements:

Essential

• Light lifting
• Pushing/pulling
• Standing
• Sitting
• Walking
• Reaching
• Average working pace
• Memory
• Reading
• Verbal and written communication
• Reasoning
• Analyzing
• Hearing
• Logic
  
  

Moderate

• Lifting
• Repetitive motion
• Climbing
• Bending
• Fast pace
• Multiple stimuli
• Frequent change