Assistant professor Yan Zhang, Ph.D., approaches his lab in the same way his department approaches the study of medicinal chemistry: by embracing the multiple disciplines that compose this science and combining context with rigor.

For Zhang, that includes the way he equips and staffs the organic chemistry lab and the radiochemistry lab, both of which fall within the Department of Medicinal Chemistry in the VCU School of Pharmacy.

Trained originally as an organic chemist, Zhang, whose doctorate is in medicinal chemistry, was first tasked upon his 2004 arrival to VCU with setting up the research facilities that would support his students and postdoctoral fellows in their pursuit of drug design and development.

“Basic research depends on strong labs,” says Zhang, who compares the study of medicinal chemistry with an iceberg. “Every drug is at the top of an immense pyramid. It is the pinnacle of research and development.”

In fact, each drug on the market represents between $800 million and $1 billion in research and development. Additionally, for each marketed drug, between one and two thousand compounds must be studied and synthesized, Zhang says.

That’s the calling of the medicinal chemist — to spend hours upon hours inside labs synthesizing and analyzing the organic compounds that may one day become a drug.

“Synthesis, characterization, efficacy and toxicity are some of the primary aspects we’re focusing on,” Zhang says.

If researchers depend on strong labs, as Zhang says, then the equipment inside those labs must be top-notch.

That’s where HEETF funding stepped in. Since 2004, Zhang has used HEETF resources to incrementally build up what he believes is a “state-of-the-art” laboratory facility.

“All under one roof, we have a lab that synthesizes drug candidates, conducts primary screening and designs new drugs,” he says.

Because of the nature of the research, the full lab is split into two portions, the organic chemistry lab and the radiochemistry lab. HEETF funds have provided more than $70,000 for equipment, including such gems as an HPLC (high pressure/performance liquid chromatography), a minus 80 degrees lab freezer, a number of rotation vaporization (“rotavapor”) simulators, two refrigerated cooling systems, a couple of ultraviolet detectors, a water purification system, a water bath and a bath shaker, and several vacuum pumps.

The equipment supports several projects, including research for an anti-HIV drug. This research, in particular, has garnered swift recognition. After submitting findings in March 2007, the American Chemical Society’s journal, Organic Letters, published Zhang’s team’s research in April.

“Without HEETF, we couldn’t publish results in the top journals,” Zhang says, explaining that publishing is a benchmark for other research grants his group has received, such as those from the National Institutes of Health.

As guidelines for additional funding go, the lab is also meeting another important criterion — the dividend it yields as a shared resource.

Indeed, the medicinal chemistry lab, with its HEETF equipment, is becoming an interdepartmental treasure, providing investigators in other VCU schools and departments the ability to join forces.

“Since we can conduct both chemical synthesis and primary screening, it is much easier to for us set up extensive and intensive collaboration across the campus, allowing for a consortium of research,” Zhang says.

To that point, Zhang and his team are working with faculty members in the Department of Pathology and the Department Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in VCU’s School of Medicine to study the anti-cancer activity of a library of novel compounds. They are also collaborating with colleagues in the VCU Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology to study another series of compounds with the potential ability to fight drug abuse.

Beyond the myriad practical applications for research and development, the medicinal chemistry lab offers graduate and undergraduate students extensive hands-on training, which tests their research mettle and hones their confidence, Zhang says.

“We’re providing firsthand experience with how book knowledge can differ from that of the real research world,” he says. “Labs like ours provide application and intellectual maturity.”