Yale's Micalizio receives Eli Lilly Award for Organic...( New Haven Conn. -- Yale Assistant Pro...)

New Haven, Conn. -- Yale Assistant Professor Glenn Micalizio has been named an Eli Lilly Grantee for Organic Chemistry, an award that comes with a two-year unrestricted grant of $100,000 that will be used to continue his research on ways to simplify the synthesis of complex biologically active organic molecules.

This coveted award is both an honor and gift, and includes Micalizio's participation in the 13th biennial Lilly Grantee Symposium in March 2008 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

"Lilly is highly committed to the development of promising young scientists that will be the future scientific and educational leaders in the area of organic chemistry," said Mark D. Chappell, Chair of the Organic Academic Contacts Committee of the Discovery Chemistry Research & Technologies group of Lilly Research Laboratories. "We believe that the Lilly Grantee Program is a reflection of this commitment."

Micalizio synthesizes complex biologically active molecules. His research focuses on strategies for simplifying the process by developing new ways to form carboncarbon bonds between molecules. "Our goal is to figure out what we need to do in organic chemistry to facilitate the process of drug discovery," he said. "Overall, we are aiming to design new reactions that make it possible to discover complex small molecules with biologically important profiles."

According to Micalizio, the classic 'needle-in-a-haystack' approach to drug discovery can be influenced by dramatically altering the type of 'hay' that is screened. "We aim to shape the process by making collections of complex molecules easier to synthesize," he said.

Micalizio is defining new ways to accomplish "convergent synthesis" in which simple carbon skeletons are fused to make molecules that are more complex. His approach is to develop methods for linking frameworks together through carboncarbon bonds. Such bond forming processes are central to organic chemistry, and provid
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Contact: Janet Rettig Emanuel
janet.emanuel@yale.edu
203-432-2157
Yale University
19-Jan-2007