Acknowledgements
The writing of this historical manuscript would not have been possible without the support of all
those who shared their story. Many of whom not only reside across the country, but also made the
University of Kansas, and especially, the Department of Medicinal Chemistry what it is today. I owe a
special note of gratitude to Professor Gary Grunewald, and Jane Buttenhoff, who stood by me with an
abundance of patience and provided me the essential references, and pointing me in the right direction
for data collection.
In April 2006, Dr. Dan Flynn, (former doctoral student of medicinal chemistry at the University of
Kansas) CEO of Deciphera Pharmaceuticals at Lawrence, Kansas, asked me if I would be interested in
writing the history of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry. Gary Grunewald broached me with the
idea of writing the history from an external perspective by collecting as many personal stories from as
many department players possible, past and present. The department history dates back to the late
1940s and continues up through 2007. After some contemplation on the complexity of which this
project might involve, I agreed to record the department’s 60 year (anecdotal) history.
I am indeed grateful for the time and energy that everyone provided me by telling their story, along
with filling the void of chemistry knowledge that I certainly lacked. This compilation is by no means
a comprehensive list of all the players involved in the department’s history. But it does present, I
believe, a well rounded chronological history of the time line referenced. I also wish to thank Dr.
Barbara Schowen, Dr. Robin Zavod, and Ms. Diane F. Zavod, for taking the time to edit my opening
chapter. I also wish to thank the staff at KU’s Spencer Library, who tirelessly searched, found and
dusted off the old files of the School of Pharmacy, and the Department of Medicinal Chemistry,
required for my research. Finally, salutes to all the folks who helped make it happen.
Jane Aldrich
Jeff Aube
Charles Barfnecht
John Bergen
Brian Blagg
Christie Brouillette
Wayne Brouillette
Dale Boger
Ron Borne
Ron Borchardt
Albert Burgstahler
Jane Buttenhoff
Joe Cannon
Donald Canham
John Carr
John Cashman
Matt Cerny
George Chang
Gene Coats
Sunil David
Mike Doughty
Apurba Dutta
Morris Faiman
Dan Flynn
Bill Gastrock
Richard Givens
Gary Grunewald
Marlin Harmony
Bob Hanzlic
Pat Hanna
Ms. Aya Higuchi
Gilbert Hite
Earl Huyser
Kristin Bowmen-James
Rodney Johnson
Govind Kapadia
Danny Lattin
Jules Lapidus
David Lemal
Tomas Lemke
Linda Maggiora
James McChesney
Lester Mitscher
Jim Monn
Howard Mossberg
Mike Mullican
Wendel L. Nelson
Don Nerland
Jim Panek
Tom Pazdernick
Phil Portoghese
Ronald Quintana
Mike Rafferty
Anthony Romero
John Schloss
Barbara Schowen
Dick Schowen
Emily Scott
Ernst Schonbrunn
Val J. Stella
Barbara Timmermann
Anabella Villalobos
Robert Wiley
Peter Worth
Aaron Wrobleski
Robin Zavod
Gunda Georg
Arthur Ramsey
2
A History of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry
University of Kansas, 1947 to 2007
Author: David F. Manning
The University of Kansas, established in 1864, was the brainchild of Governor Charles Robinson, the
first governor of Kansas, who served 1861-1863. The first building to house the University opened its
doors September 12, 1866, with an enrollment of 29 men and 26 women. That original building
eventually became known as the University of the Great Plaines.
Only the third Pharmacy school in the country, Kansas College of Pharmacy at KU was established in
1885. The desire to expand the university and create the College of Pharmacy had its roots in the age
of patient medicine, when scientists began to realize the relationship between disease, drugs, the use
of combined chemicals, and the corresponding beneficial affects in patient care.
The movement to establish a school of pharmacy actually began in 1880 with the first meeting of the
Kansas Pharmaceutical Association. The purpose of the meeting was to draft a stern resolution urging
the State Legislator to establish a Kansas College of Pharmacy.
Considered a provocative act on the part of the association, goals of the resolution were two-fold: its
primary concern dealt with the rather appalling situation that caused young men to travel great
distances to study pharmaceutical science. Secondly, it was intended for the resolution to serve as a
viable platform to address the deplorable safety conditions related to dispensing drugs, medicines and
poisons that were below state and federal standards.
Due to a lingering bureaucracy, it wasn’t until the winter of 1885 when the State of Kansas authorized
the establishment of a separate department of pharmacy. The new department, to be located in the old
chemistry building, brought the number of departments at the University of Kansas to five. Opening
day for the Department of Pharmacy was met with great praise: Massachusetts Street, the heart of
downtown Lawrence, was the scene of celebration, a bonfire as well as enthusiastic speeches.
It should also be noted that growth and development at the University of Kansas was enormously
advanced when, in late 1890, Sara Robinson, Charles’ wife, bequeathed a family property, Mount
Oread, to KU.
In 1891, the Department of Pharmacy became the School of Pharmacy with Professor Lucius E.
Sayre, a New Yorker, elected to serve as the first Dean of the School of Pharmacy. It wasn’t long
before there were growing concerns of overcrowded conditions in the old chemistry building. The
issue of overcrowding was finally relieved in the fall of 1900 with the construction of Bailey
Chemical Laboratories; this allowed the School of Pharmacy to occupy the basement and first two
floors of the east wing of “Old Bailey.”
At that time, doctoral degrees presenting with a focus in medicinal chemistry were titled Doctorate of
Philosophy with a major in Pharmaceutical Chemistry. The study of medicinal chemistry further
advanced in 1947, when the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, structured within pharmaceutical
chemistry, was founded, under the leadership of Professor Joseph H. Burckhalter.
In 1950, two postdoctoral fellowships were established in the department. The departmentalization of
pharmaceutical chemistry occurred in 1965, when Dr. Edward Smissman became the “first official”
Chair of Medicinal Chemistry, now to be a separate and distinct department.
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In 1967, Dr. Takeru Higuchi, newly arrived from the University of Wisconsin, became the new chair
of the Analytical, Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Biochemistry Department. The Department of
Pharmacology & Toxicology was ultimately established in 1969.
The Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Kansas currently consists of 12 faculty
members collaborating with four courtesy faculty and approximately 75 graduate, postdoctoral and
technical students. Today, Distinguished Professor Barbara N. Timmermann, Ph.D., serves as the
Department Chair.
The department has long been an active player in the affairs of the American Chemical Society (ACS)
Division of Medicinal Chemistry. Five of its faculty: Joe Burckhalter, Edward Smissman, Matthias
Mertes, Lester Mitscher, Gary Grunewald, along with many of its alumni have served as the Division
Chair.
The following pages include personal accounts of former and current faculty and students. Their
accounts reflect scientific discoveries, past successes as well as failures in the Department of
Medicinal Chemistry reaching as far back as1947.
It’s a story of medicinal science evolution and accountability, passed on from master to master,
student to student, intensely scouring in the process of new medicinal discoveries. While some of
these discoveries never made it out of the flask; many of the medicinal findings, spanning over 60
years of daunting laboratory work, went on to achieve encouraging results in fighting disease.
In 1942, Joe Burckhalter completed his doctoral studies in Pharmacology at the University of
Michigan at Ann Arbor under the guidance of the legendary Dr. Frederick F. Blicke. Burckhalter
received his M.S. in organic chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana in 1938; his B.S. in
chemistry at the University of South Carolina in 1934.
Burckhalter began his pharmaceutical career at Parke Davis & Company. While there, he was
instrumental in the discoveries of the anti-malarial drugs Camoquin and Propoquin; a process
developed from a compound that later became known as Tylenol. The synthesis of Camoquin
became the first single-dose treatment for acute malaria.
Dr. Burckhalter was primarily responsible for building the interdepartmental graduate and Ph.D.
programs in medicinal chemistry at both Kansas and Michigan. His work to achieve these milestones
was accomplished through tireless collaboration with Professors Joe Sinsheimer and Ray Counsell,
while at the University of Michigan.
In early 1947, Joe Burckhalter’s colleague at Parke Davis & Co., Dr. Joseph Pfiffner was offered a
professorship in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at KU. Although he declined the offer,
he did, however, recommend Burckhalter for the position because of Burkhalter’s long desire to teach.
Later that same year, Burckhalter was invited to lunch with John H. Nelson, Dean of the Graduate
School; J. Allan Reese, Dean of the School of Pharmacy; as well as Ray Q. Brewster, Chairman of
Chemistry for a potential offer of a position as an Associate Professor in Pharmaceutical Chemistry.
Following a long discussion over lunch, Burckhalter accepted the position with two caveats: a
reasonable workload and the means to develop a departmental doctoral program.
To Burckhalter’s chagrin, the doctoral program was never really approved by the Graduate School nor
the Kansas Board of Regents. It was thought that Dean Reese approved the plan in principle only.
Moreover, just a few days into his new position, the Dean advised Burckhalter he had forgotten to
mention that Burckhalter would also be expected to perform forensic investigations, as well as head
2
the State Drug Laboratory. It wasn’t long before Burckhalter summoned the courage to flatly decline
the honor of examining the stomachs of victims of poisoning.
Burckhalter eventually did have success initiating a Ph.D. program in medicinal chemistry. In 1950
he was promoted to full professor. When he replaced Dr. Donald C. Brodie as the Department
Distinguished Chair, Duane G. Wenzel and Ray Hopponen were serving as Assistant Professors of
Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmacology.
With the departure of J. Allan Reese in September 1963, Professor Duane Wenzel became the acting
Dean, later to be replaced by Dr. Howard Mossberg in 1966.
Throughout the Burckhalter years the department enjoyed a barrage of generous injections of
industrial, (chief among them Parke Davis & Co.), and government grants of over $100,000 (1950s
dollars) in support of KU’s medicinal research for the treatment of acute malaria, heart disease,
hypertension, epilepsy, cancer, the control of dysentery, as well as the use of cortisone in treating
arthritis. Burckhalter went on several international speaking tours addressing the potential of these
ground breaking medicinal developments.
In 1955, Burckhalter was appointed faculty Fulbright Fellow to conduct medicinal research at the
Eberhard Karls University in Tuebingen, Germany. In 1958, in collaboration with Dr. Robert
Seiwald, Burckhalter made a significant contribution to the identification of antigens by developing
the first antibody labeling agent, Fluorescein Isothiocyanate (FITC). The widespread use of FITC
catalyzed the generation of other labeling procedures, such as the radio-immunoassay and enzymelinked immuno-absorbant assay. In 1959, Dr. Cora Downs was credited with the idea and
development of FITC.
In a letter dated January 13, 1990, Burckhalter wrote a rebuttal, reflecting on the Kansas Alumni
article written March of 1987, and “Downs taught world of truth” about the legendary Distinguished
Professor of Microbiology at KU, Dr. Cora Downs, who claimed, “Her most noted scientific
achievement was her roll in the development and perfection of the fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled
antibody technique.” Burckhalter made it clear that, “at no time was Cora Downs involved in any of
the original ideas, formulation or conduct of FA research, the Department of Medicinal Chemistry
played the crucial roll in its origin and development.” Burckhalter was later elected into the “Hall of
Fame” for designing the color labeling agent series now used world wide for the accurate diagnosis of
infectious disease.
During the period 1950 to 1960, the School of Pharmacy offered few milestones of success in facility
expansion; and some rather discouraging department policy setbacks for Chairman Burckhalter ensued
during the coming years. What kept Burckhalter above the fray of occasional, and sometimes-ugly
institutional bureaucracy was his love of teaching. To quote from a letter written by Burckhalter in
April 1992, “Guiding students into exciting experiences in the laboratory offset the negative aspects of
my job. In illustrating the excitement of students who were doing research, I recall hearing a loud
chuckling in the lab next to my office in old Bailey. When it continued, I looked into the lab to find a
lone student, Homer Scarborough, shaking with laughter over seeing beautiful crystals of a new
compound forming in his Erlenmeyer flask”.
Burckhalter supervised the research of 21 Ph.D. and 14 postdoctoral students at the University of
Kansas. Frustrated at his inability to gain additional faculty, Burckhalter asked that the Ph.D. degrees
be granted through collaboration with the Department of Chemistry with an emphasis on organic
chemistry, which he considered most essential to the field.
There was yet another disappointment. Although he worked tirelessly, Chairman Burckhalter was
unsuccessful in gaining support, through Dean Reese, to provide the means for improved modern
laboratory facilities. In failing to establish a new dedicated laboratory for medicinal and organic
3
synthesis, Burckhalter then lobbied hard, and did succeed, in his bid to have the School of Pharmacy
included in the design of the new Malott building. The transition of the pharmaceutical laboratory to
Malott Hall allowed for desperately needed space for other academic activities in the old Bailey
facility.
Burckhalter later contributed much to the design of the pharmacy laboratories, as well as a
prescription lab in the Malott building that included a vast window for guest viewing; Dean Reese and
Chancellor Murphy fancied the idea of an open view of students working in their white coats. But
sadly, by 1960, Chairman Burckhalter was still unable to convince the powers to be that the pharmacy
facilities were still inferior to those of war torn Germany.
Reluctantly, Burckhalter decided to accept the position of Chairman of the Department of
Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Michigan, his old alma mater, a post he had long
sought. Dr. Burckhalter gained a tremendous foothold in the field of medicinal chemistry, and had
published over 20 patents in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics when he retired from teaching in 1983.
Upon Dr. Burckhalter’s departure to the University of Michigan in September 1960 to assume the
Chair previously held by Professor Frederic F. Blicke, Professor Edward Smissman, from the
University of Wisconsin, arrived at the University of Kansas to take the position of Department Chair.
Professors Burckhalter and Smissman are both credited for the dynamic vision that established and
magnified the tradition of strength in organic synthesis and drug design that remains the central focus
of the Department’s curriculum today.
Ed Smissman finished high school in East St. Louis, Illinois, in 1943. He went on to join the United
States Navy along with three of his high school buddies; however, because of his high qualification in
keen hearing perception, the navy found him better qualified for the Coast Guard as a sonar specialist.
Sadly, Smissman’s three close high school friends served on naval battle ships in the Pacific and were
all killed in action. Smissman served in the Coast Guard until the end of World War II.
In 1946, his love of chemistry steered him to pursue his B.Sc. at the University of Illinois, and later his
Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin. In January 1951, he married Clare Feir and they lived in
Madison during his final semester of graduate school. In early 1952, the Smissman’s moved to
Chicago, Illinois where he began his academic profession at the University of Illinois at Chicago as
assistant professor. In 1955, Smissman accepted a professorship position at the University of
Wisconsin where he developed the blueprint for the graduate program in medicinal chemistry.
While at Wisconsin, Smissman began to expand his research of scientific and biochemical activities;
including areas of isolation, structural studies and synthesis of natural products. Dr. John V. Bergen, a
nationally known leader of chemical associations, standards-development programs, not-for-profit
organizations, and academic institutions was a former Ph.D. student of Ed Smissman from the
University of Wisconsin in the latter 1950s.
Dr. Bergen points out, “Smissman wasn’t widely published on any one topic at the time, however he
did believe in research diversity, going wide and deep, connecting uncharted medicinal ideas of
potential discoveries. He had a broad menu of options with deep philosophical goals of medicinal
objectives.”
Most intriguing was his work on organic reactions and discovery aspects of stereochemistry.
Smissman’s investigation of host-plant resistance factors led to the development of his program in
insect chemistry. He was also well recognized for his studies of mechanisms and stereochemistry of
the Prins reaction and the quasi-Favorskii rearrangement. Smissman never shied away from a
scientific problem that occasioned the right solution. He tackled, head on, problems involving stereo-
4
specific syntheses of shikimic and quinic acids. The open forum of cerebral discussion and research
activity always stimulated and challenged the learning process going on in Smissman’s laboratories.
While his research in natural products and synthetic chemistry continued, his curiosity in
conformational aspects in autonomic receptor sites expanded. Professor Barbara Schowen once said
that his, “synthesis and kinetics studies of rigid analogs of acetylcholine led to an understanding of the
conformational requirements of the active sites of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, long before the
enzyme had ever been purified or crystallized. He published a series of papers on the subject, and the
results reported in these papers turned out to be right on!”
Dr. Smissman was known for his innovation of interdisciplinary research, not only at the University of
Kansas, but also across the collegiate spectrum. He had a gift of inspiration and the profound ability to
bring people together across cultural and professional diversity. He fostered disciplines that created a
cohesive atmosphere of cooperation and think-tank like creativity. In 1963, Dr. Smissman introduced
the concept of an annual collegial exchange of medicinal and pharmacology research work and ideas
from students and faculty through a consortium of Universities that became known as MIKI.
The MIKI consortium, still in effect today, consists of the Departments of Medicinal Chemistry at
University of Minnesota, Illinois, Kansas, and Iowa. Smissman was the architect behind KU’s
prestigious multi-million-dollar National Institutes of Health grant in 1969, ultimately leading to the
construction of McCollum Laboratories, which is still in use today as the center for inter-disciplinary
science research. He was also author and coauthor of over 100 research publications covering a wide
range of subjects in medicinal chemistry and biochemistry. Additionally, he oversaw the training of
over seventy Ph.D. students as well as twenty postdoctoral students.
One of the fondest memories of the Smissmans’ was their home in Lawrence, on 21st and Alabama,
and the frequent parties they hosted. The house had an unusual but stylish design, a hyperbolic
parabola roof supported high up on two opposite corners and low in the middle, with a huge wideopen space inside with 19-foot high ceilings, large high windows, huge plants and elegant furnishings.
It was space that could easily accommodate large groups. Dr. John Carr, former postdoctoral student
of Dr. Smissman at KU said, “Ed and Clare were a team of community innkeepers who would host
anyone having an intellectual interest for the University of Kansas”. The department student body and
faculty were known as the Smissman extended family and were regularly invited guests in their home.
After Dr. Smissman’s passing in July 1974, the University of Wisconsin posthumously awarded him
the distinguished citation award for outstanding contributions to medicinal chemistry. Sir Derek H.R.
Barton, of the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, as well as the 1969 winner of
the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, inaugurated the Smissman lecture series at KU in January 1979.
Smissman’s sister-in- law, Dorothy Feir, described how talented, kind and gentle he was with
exceedingly high standards of work and personal ethics. “But he was no pushover, and at his size, he
didn’t have to be. One time while he and Clare were driving through Chicago, three teenagers kept
bumping into their car at every stoplight. After the third bump, Ed got out, walked back to their car,
puffed out his huge chest and said something like, ‘if you bump me again, I will come back here and
knock your heads together!’
Growing up in E. St. Louis gave Smissman enough fist action and street smarts to conquer such
community transgressions. When Ed and Clare were first married, money was tight, and he suggested
that Clare make herself some skirts. She said she didn’t know how to make skirts. He then bought
some material, a book on skirt making and actually made two skirts for her … she was delighted.
Another time while Smissman was in a grocery store in St. Louis, he came across Gorgeous George, a
popular professional TV wrestler. After chatting with him for some time, George asked Smissman if
he would like to become a wrestler for him … Smissman promptly declined the offer. Dorothy said
5
that she found two things very sad about Ed Smissman; one was that he and Clare never had any
children and two, that he died way too young, just two weeks before his 49th birthday.
The association of Dr. Edward Smissman with the University of Kansas would not be complete
without mentioning Dr. Takeru Higuchi, known today as the father of Physical Pharmacy. The essence
of Higuchi’s work was in applying the principles of the theoretical science of chemistry to develop
better and dependable pharmaceutical dosage techniques and delivery systems. Ed Smissman and
Takeru Higuchi first became acquainted at the University of Wisconsin in the 1950s, and thought
highly of one another’s talents in their respective fields.
After some administrative maneuvering to lure Higuchi away from Wisconsin, where he had been for
20 years, the Smissman/Higuchi collaboration team resumed at the University of Kansas in 1967. This
dynamic duo became the ying and yang of Medicinal Chemistry and Physical Pharmacy in their own
right; both responsible for connecting the two fields of biochemistry and pharmaceutical delivery
mechanisms to better effect human health. Both gentlemen were considered a mentor’s mentor.
Professor Valentino J. Stella wrote in his Invited Editorial of 2001, published in the Journal of
Pharmaceutical Sciences, “My Mentors.” “As once defined by Homer, Mentor was the trusted
councilor of Odysseus, and since the time of Homer, mentor was considered a wise and trusted teacher
or councilor”. The very same inspiration developed in Alexander the Great, thanks to his wise and
trusted mentor, Aristotle. No doubt, in the category of mentorship, the intellectual beaming lights of
Ed Smissman and Takeru Higuchi in scientific collaboration and knowledge deliverance will indeed
go down through the collegial ages.
Jane Buttenhoff, who holds a B.G.S. degree from the University of Kansas, is the senior staff
administrator for the Department of Medicinal Chemistry. Buttenhoff’s career at KU began in 1964,
as a clerk typist for Dr. Smissman. She has served every department chairperson since. Buttenhoff’s
fond memories of the late Ed and Clare Smissman embody the essence of family and scholastic values
that centered on the department.
“The Smissmans were simply a delightful couple to know and he was a kind and generous person for
whom to work. So generous, in fact, that he would often loan people his Volkswagen bug to go to the
bank, or for lunch. But most vividly, I recall how he epitomized the perfect schoolmaster and parent
for his students; he just had that non-intimidating approach to faculty and students alike. I recall the
day when an undergrad student of his was near failing his chemistry class and came by to discuss his
future with Dr. Smissman; the student had that uncanny look of fear in him. But when he came out of
Dr. Smissman’s office he had the look of ease and confidence. That’s the way he made his students
feel … that all will be okay in the end.”
Dr. Smissman certainly held a command of respect from his students, and for all the right reasons. Dr.
Smissman’s Monday night meetings “of all hands” were essential, and mandatory; be there or be dead
was the posting. He also had a love for all kinds of new office gadget technology; he acquired the first
industrial copier printer machine in Malott Hall in the early 1960s, of which he would kindly share
with other departments.
The Smissmans would often travel around the world and invariably bring back a gift of sorts for me,
Ms. Buttenhoff recalled. Clare would also write me personal letters from abroad, just to keep me
posted on how it was all going. I once bred German Shepherds and gave the Smissmans a pup they
named Hagan … Hagan was quick to become a close companion to the professor. Dr. Smissman’s
final week of life in July of 1974 was dark, bleak, and full of sadness for the University of Kansas; he
was admitted to the hospital on Thursday, and died the following Sunday.
6
The most difficult time in my career, recalls Ms. Buttenhoff, was when I had to contact the faculty and
students, who were traveling, to corral them all back to campus for the memorial service. It was
heartening for all of us to see Matt Mertes cleaning out Dr. S’s office; because somewhere in the
abyss, we all thought he’d just walk in the door again. To this day, Ed and Clare Smissman are dearly
missed and will always be ingrained in the institutions granite”.
In January 1976, Clare Smissman wrote this forward for the Smissman Memorial tribute
published in 1977.
“When I was asked to write this chapter, I eagerly agreed and thought how marvelous it would be
finally to have the occasion to put down for posterity some of the fond memories Ed and I both shared
… and now I have. I’ve studied the pictures we’ve collected and searched my heart and mind, and
have tried to put it all in perspective. Where to begin?
Well let’s start at the beginning. I recall about twelve years ago when E.V. McCollum, who was eighty
some years of age, spoke at the Chemistry Department honors dinner, and began his story at the time
of his beginning in 1879. When, after 90 minutes in his story, he was only up to 1902 and still had
approximately half a century to go, Ed and I settled back for at least another three hours. Professor
McCollum was charming and interesting, and we enjoyed him immensely. The moral to this is that we
often recalled this event when anyone suggested “a beginning to a long story.”
Even in the beginning, before we acquired all of our “family”, Ed was a master of the iron fist and
velvet glove, to use the expression coined by Dr. Jules LaPidus, a former student and close friend of
the Smissman’s. Before we were married, Ed had rented an apartment in Madison, Wisconsin. I went
to Madison to prepare the dwelling for our future occupancy. Among other things, the living room, the
only room except for the bathroom and kitchen needed painting; and the antique gas stove needed
about four inches of grease and crud cleaned off before I’d do any cooking on it, provided I ever
learned to cook.
On the outside chance that I’d ever learn to cook, Edward assigned the stove-cleaning job to me while
he took on all the painting. I took one look at that stove and began to cry, and for the better part of
two weeks, I was still crying, and pleading, I cajoled and used every female trick every female has
learned since Eve got Adam with the Apple, in a vain attempt to entice Edward into cleaning the stove.
He never once batted an eye. He just continued painting and saying, “if you want the stove cleaned,
you will clean it yourself”.
He didn’t smoke a pipe in those days, but if he had I just couldn’t see him standing there painting,
puffing on his pipe, and gently but firmly saying “clean the stove, Clare.” Finally, I did so, crying the
entire time. But, from then on, without ever asking, he took over the task of stove cleaning.
Now, to the good parts, and I must say I have difficulty remembering all of them because there were
so many, its hard to sort them out, or to talk about any of them without talking about all of them and
all the people who helped make Ed’s life so meaningful.
For instance, how can I talk about the bridge and espresso coffees with Jules LaPidus in Madison in
the 1950s without talking about Don Witiak’s first plane ride and his first bout with a camera? Don
went to a meeting in Rhode Island, along with some other graduate students, and bought a little
brownie box camera so he could take pictures of his first plane ride, among other things. Don took
photos of the left wing, the right wing, the propellers, of the Lincoln memorial, of Ed and some of the
graduate students at the meeting. The only trouble was they all looked alike – one big chromacolor
blurb.
It just so happened that our summer party was rained out that year so, about 30 of us, moved into our
small apartment in Madison. Don volunteered to run home and retrieve his photographs of “The
7
Trip” and show them to us. Ann Bergen was originally standing against a wall but as the slide show
became more entertaining, and she and everyone else became more hysterical, she began to slither
down the wall until she was helplessly sitting on the floor in tears of laughter.
Poor Dianna! She kept saying, “Don, I don’t think they are laughing with you! Fred Block, actually,
was our photographer in residence in the Madison era and Bruce Gabbard was our beer drinker in
fact. Jorge Li and Zafar Israili took over the Photography in Lawrence, and Norm Dahle, Ron Borne,
Bill Gastrock, John Sorenson and Bill Albrecht took over the beer drinking honors in Lawrence and
other areas. Speaking of honors, Ernie Bubieniec should get his … we all know however creative
Ernie is, he does get carried away at times. One Thanksgiving in Madison, for example, Ernie
volunteered to make the centerpiece for the table. At about 1 PM on Thanksgiving Day, Ernie arrives
at our flat … he looked ghastly. Unshaven. Dressed in a frazzled shirt and equally not too neat
trousers, but with a centerpiece in hand. Needless to say, I thought he had arrived for the party and
was livid at his appearance.
To relieve the suspense, he had not come to stay for the party! You see Ernie had a friend in Madison
who is a potter. The thought of an available kiln without anything to do over a holiday must have
been too much for Ernie. So he and his friend stayed up all night dying several pounds of chicken feet
blue and drying it in the kiln. You see the plan was to have the centerpiece represent the abundance of
the earth and skies above. The blue chicken feet were supposed to be the sky; but I’ve never figured
out how we were supposed to represent the earth below the sky above, when the sky was to be spread
down the center of the table.
Besides, the chicken feet looked as if it had already been fed to sick chickens and had made the tour
through their digestive channels. We had no centerpiece for our Thanksgiving table that year! That
wasn’t the worst of my pre-Thanksgiving dinner traumas, however.
Betty Coates, Ann Ramsey, Jackie Gastrock and Carol Collins can tell you what its like to make hot
German potato salad for 175 people, since they had done just that for our MIKI meeting in Lawrence.
I doubt if any of them have ever made hot German potato salad since! I don’t know about hot
German potato salad for 175 folks, but I do know about mashed potato for 45. Ed felt that
Thanksgiving dinner without mashed potatoes was like apple pie without cheese or a kiss without a
squeeze, a travesty on taste. So, every year we went the rounds of my firm statement, “no mashed
potatoes this year” and Ed’s firmer statement, “don’t forget the potatoes for mashing.” You know
who won. The after dinner clean-up never bothered me because I had already cleaned mashed
potatoes off the floor, the walls, the stove, and me.
And then there’s Ed’s hot-spiced cider! Ed would stand there brewing the libation for hours. You’d
think he was Escoffier the way he’d play the great chef role, with the testing and the adding of a dash
of this and a dash of that, and then standing back to admire his creation. Ed would say about now,
“Now, Clare, that’s not quite true!” Oh, but doesn’t it make a good story? I could reminisce like this
forever.
There is so much I’d like to say. I’d love to talk about the summer parties, or the time the troops led by
Don Witiak and Robbie Irsay delivered the tea table to us for our 10th wedding anniversary, or the
time the graduate students gave Ed the chair in honor of his distinguished professorship, the trip to
Seattle to finally marry off Wendell Nelson. It was worth it! And, Nels Voldeng, he’s a great
fisherman; he often shared his catch with us. Sadly, things haven’t been the same since Don Nerland
left. One day Don was driving by the house while Ed and I were trying to dig up the “cattle guard” at
the end of our drive. Don only tried to wave as he passed. It wasn’t until Edward threw himself on the
street in front of Don’s car that Don stopped. For the next four hours, he and Ed worked at digging
that thing out of the cement so the drive could be repaved. I helped too; I was the gopher, as Don put
it.
8
“Gopher the crow bar …Gopher the wrench … Gopher the hammer … and Gopher the beer.” Ed
was always pleased when one of the graduate students would drop by as Don did. We enjoyed Tom
and Betty Pazdernick’s occasional Sunday visits after they moved to Kansas City. And, when Jackie
and Bill Gastrock returned for Thanksgiving one year we were surprised and delighted. As Bill put it,
I responded with my usual calm. It seems I’ve talked more about Thanksgiving then anything else, and
rightly so. They were times of great Thanksgiving for us, thanks not only for an abundance of food
and drink but also, and most profoundly so, thanks for the good fellowship present and for the lasting
friendships and ties that meant so much to Edward and me.
The day before he died, he insisted the summer go on and that I be there, and I was. Edward was in
the end, as in the beginning, and in the future, the gentle, firm, positive, “Iron fist and velvet glove”
that touched all he encountered, and will continue to touch others through those who knew him and
worked with him. After all, the finest tribute any man can ever have is found in the people he left
behind – his colleagues, his friends, his students, and his wife. With love to you all.”
After Clare finished her law degree in 1966 from the University of Kansas, she opened a small office
in Baldwin City, Kansas and taught part time at Baker University. Clare did a lot of pro-bono
litigation work for the students, and “Ed” was always available to help her with the more difficult
students. Clare Smissman died September 3, 2004, in Orlando, Florida.
The timeline of the department’s progression is essential for one to appreciate the evolutionary
milestones that made the institution what it is today. In 1964, the department faculty team was Ed
Smissman, Bob Wiley, and Matt Mertes. In 1966, Gary Grunewald and Jim McChesney joined the
department. In 1968, Professors Jim McChesney and Ed Smissman decided on a plan to accept more
graduate students and to collaborate with the Department of Botany to combine 50% of MDCM and
50% of Botany. This collaboration as a shared coordinated department was to bring to light the
relevance of both disciplines working in unison to better understand disease-fighting agents. The
University of Kansas was awarded the Health Sciences Advancement Award that led to the rapid
growth in faculty for KU’s chemical and biological sciences development and Ed Smissman was its
PI. That same year the Pharmaceutical Chemistry laboratory was built. In 1969, the Alza
Pharmaceutical Research laboratory was constructed and later became known as Interex Research,
then Merck-Interex and now the Takeru Higuchi Research Laboratory. In 1970, the McCollum
laboratories were built. In 1971, Bob Hanzlik from Stanford University was brought up in discussion
for possible addition to the MDCM staff. At the time, Hanzlik was in England doing graduate studies
when he got the call from Ed Smissman to come in for an interview.
When Ed Smissman died in 1974, Matt Mertes served as interim department chair. In 1975, Les
Mitscher, from Ohio State University joined the department as Chairman and Distinguished Professor.
About that time, due to mass influx of National Institutes of Health grants, the University Center for
Drug Design was established on the west campus and Matt Mertes was its PI, and Jane Buttenhoff was
the executive administrative assistant.
The Smissman Research Laboratories were dedicated as the home of the Drug Design Center. In
those days it was common to have social-business meetings on Monday nights consisting of the entire
department. Those ritual and mandatory congregations presented an important opportunity for open
discussion, to brainstorm and present new ideas on how to improve the business of pharmaceutical
science at hand. The encounter brought a vibrant flow of knowledge and faculty and student
cohesiveness; essential to the field of research and drug discovery.
It was during a faculty meeting in early 1965 when it was suggested that the department name be
officially changed from Pharmaceutical Chemistry to Medicinal Chemistry. Smissman really wasn’t in
favor of a department name change but one morning he called Professor Joe Burckhalter at the
University of Michigan to ask his opinion of a suitable name change for the department and
9
Burkhalter suggested Medicinal Chemistry. In fact Dr. Burckhalter had tried earlier to change the
department name to medicinal chemistry at the University of Michigan and failed, but when Dean
Tom Rowe learned of the department name change at KU he suggested the same for MU.
In 1977, Jim McChesney, who harbored an immense Botany background, left KU for the University
of Mississippi to head up their medicinal plant farm complex for advanced cancer research. Dale
Boger joined the department from Harvard University. In 1981 the south expansion to Malott Hall was
completed. In 1985, Bob Wiley left KU to become Dean at Iowa University, and Dale Boger left for
Purdue.
All the while Chairman Les Mitscher was working tirelessly to obtain vital grants, develop more
effective methods to compete for department awards, to hire more critically needed faculty and to
obtain critical laboratory expansion. In achieving some of his goals, the department was able to hire
Gunda Georg from the University of Marburg, Germany; Jeff Aube came in from Yale University,
and Mike Doughty from Southeastern Louisiana University.
Upon the death of Matt Mertes in 1989, Les Mitscher decided to leave the Chair’s position. John
Schloss, from Oak Ridge Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, joined the Department as the new
chairman. In 1994, John Schloss stepped down as chairman and Gary Grunewald was asked to
assume the Chair position. He remained in that position until 2003.
In 2000, Ernst Schonbrunn from Hamburg University, Germany, joined the department. That same
year the Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (CoBRE) program for combating cancer disease
was established and Gunda Georg was the program administrator and PI. Georg’s huge success with
CoBRE became a model standard for other universities across the country to emulate. Also in 2000,
John Schloss left for Kuwait to become new chair of the Medicinal Chemistry Department at the
University of Kuwait. In 2001, Jane Aldrich, from University of Michigan, joined the department.
In 2002, and fortunately for the department, an NIH grant was awarded to refurbish the “Old” Malott
Hall laboratories and Gary Grunewald was its PI. Grunewald was also instrumental in obtaining
additional abstract funding for modern laboratory equipment. In 2002, Brian Blagg, from University
of Utah, joined the department to replace Mike Doughty. That same year, the department’s CoBRE
proteomics project was established with Bob Hanzlik as its PI.
In 2004, Jeff Aube served as interim Chair, and the Chemical Methodologies and Library
Development Research Center (CMLD) project was established, with Jeff Aube was its PI. Emily
Scott from Rice University, Apurba Dutta from the University of Konstanz, Germany and Sunil David
from Madras University, India, were also added to the department’s faculty.
In August 2005, Barbara Timmermann, from the University of Texas at Austin, joined the department
to become Chair and the twelfth faculty member number. In January 2007, Dr. Gunda Georg left KU
to become Chair of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Minnesota.
The Department of Medicinal Chemistry is growing seemingly exponentially with two new faculty
additions; Professor Thomas Prisinzano, University of Iowa, arriving in August 2007, and EminentScholar Blake Peterson, Pennsylvania State University, anticipated to arrive in January 2008.
Dr. Peterson grew up in Reno, Nevada and achieved his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at UCLA in
1994. He then pursued a postdoctoral program at Harvard University completing it in 1998. Peterson
said that he was “long aware of KU’s above par medicinal chemistry department and its high caliber
organization structure and collegiality”. He was highly sought after to apply at KU for a professorship.
In early 2006 Professor Brian Blagg, KU Department of Medicinal Chemistry, invited him in for an
interview.
10
After some hastening from Professor Jeff Aube to schedule the interview process, Peterson was
interviewed and six weeks later KU made him an offer. The die-was-cast when Dr. Dale Boger,
former department faculty, sealed the deal for Dr. Peterson when he said that KU was the place to be;
the medicinal chemistry is moving in the right direction with the right ideas for future drug
developments.
Dr. Thomas Prisinzano, a native of Virginia, was also aware of the department’s shinning-star history
and had long eyeballed KU for a potential place to teach. After completing his Ph.D. in medicinal
chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University, he interviewed with Professor Gary Grunewald for a
potential postdoctoral fellowship at KU in 1999, but decided on the National Institutes of Health
postdoctoral program instead. Dr. Prisinzano began his academic career as assistant professor,
University of Iowa, Division of Natural Products History and Medicinal Chemistry in 2003 and will
transition to KU in August 2007 to teach basic drug design and graduate courses in natural products,
pharmacology, and medicinal chemistry.
Remembrances from Professor Gary L. Grunewald, Ph.D., 1966, University of Wisconsin,
former Distinguished Chair and current Professor, Department of Medicinal Chemistry,
University of Kansas.
Grunewald obtained undergraduate degrees in 1960 in both Chemistry and Pharmacy at Washington
State University and did his Ph.D. studies in organic chemistry at the University of Wisconsin. In the
spring of 1965 he accepted the offer of a postdoctoral position with the distinguished professor
Edward E. Smissman at the University of Kansas.
In the Fall of 1965, as Grunewald was completing his doctoral research and writing his dissertation,
he received a phone call from Smissman inviting him to Lawrence for a visit. Grunewald accepted the
generous invitation and agreed on a date. He met Smissman at the old Kansas City airport. Although
it was dark when they met, Smissman described the wonderful rolling hills and other magnificent
scenery of eastern Kansas to Grunewald on the drive back to Lawrence. Ed Smissman was an
enthusiastic fan of all things Kansas.
The following day, Grunewald met with faculty and students in both the Department of Medicinal
Chemistry, as well as the organic chemistry division within the Department of Chemistry. Later in the
day, Smissman asked Grunewald to give an informal “chalk talk” discussion of his thesis research
project. The next morning, while sitting in the overstuffed chair in his office, Smissman lit his pipe and
leaned back in his chair and asked Grunewald if he really wanted to come to KU as a postdoc or
“wouldn’t you rather come here as an assistant professor?” That question was really out of the blue
for Grunewald. He was then told that the department was interviewing for a new assistant professor
and that Smissman had actually invited him to Lawrence to see if Grunewald might be a good
candidate. Grunewald said it was a painless way to interview. Truth be told, he wasn’t at all
prepared to either accept or decline the offer, he was much more concerned with getting back to
Wisconsin to finish his research and complete the writing of his thesis for graduation.
After mulling it over for some time, Grunewald decided to accept the offer of an assistant
professorship in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry in January 1966. He served as Department
Chair from 1994 to 2003. Grunewald noted that the number one hindrance to the department’s
progress is insufficient research space. “I’m pleased to say that we have improved nicely with the
recent remodeling of some antiquated facilities, but we are still desperately short of new space for
orderly growth of the research programs of young faculty in the department.”
In 1996 Grunewald was honored with the Higuchi/Simons Research Achievement Award for research
excellence in biomedical sciences at the University of Kansas. On September 13, 2006, Gary was
11
honored with being named a founding member of the Hall of Fame of the American Chemical Society,
Division of Medicinal Chemistry.
The following letter is a collection of Grunewald’s remembrances of Professor Matt Mertes and his
contributions to the advancement of the biomedical sciences at the University of Kansas.
“I first met Matt in the fall of 1965 when I was interviewed for my position as an assistant professor. I
still remember sitting in Matt’s office and the very first question he ask me: “Where do you see your
career ten years from now?” Well, I had no idea. I was still trying to finish up my graduate research
and write my dissertation. But this illustrates how forward thinking Matt was. He asked this question
of himself many times and it drove him to be at the forefront of his research area. Sometimes he was
too far ahead of his time. A good example was his ahead-of-its-time idea to prepare small molecules
that could bind to DNA and act to turn genes on and off. Several grant applications for these projects
were rejected. Clearly he was too early in this game. But, of course, several Noble Prizes have
subsequently been awarded in this area.
A more successful illustration of “Where should we be in ten years?” is our nuclear magnetic
resonance facilities. The University of Kansas stands as one of the top universities with state of the art
hardware and expertise in the area of high-field NMR. Without Merte’s vision this would have been
significantly delayed, if it hadn’t happened at all. Here is what I remember of this and of Merte’s role.
He and Smissman came here together in the fall of 1960 to build the medicinal chemistry program
into a world class one. They recognized that this required cooperation and collaboration with strong
programs in the biomedical and chemical sciences and they served as a catalyst between and among
research groups and departments.
An opportunity arose to significantly broaden KU’s impact in these areas with the NIH Health
Sciences Advancement Award programs. Smissman and Mertes coordinated a small group of players
in medicinal chemistry, chemistry, biochemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, and microbiology to
submit an application that was funded. This HSAA grant allowed new faculty to be hired (initially the
salaries were paid from the NIH funds with KU making the commitment to take them over at the
termination of the NIH grant). Key faculty hired under this proposal included Professors Ron
Borchardt, Rob Weaver, and Bob Hanzlik. The need to find space for this sudden surge in faculty led
to the building of McCollum Laboratories.
Prior to this time, Smissman had convinced Takeru Higuchi to come to KU and the department now
known as Pharmaceutical Chemistry was created. The McCollum and Pharmaceutical Chemistry
buildings were the beginning of the west campus research expansion. Dr.’s Higuchi, Smissman and
Mertes were a powerful trio who worked tirelessly to plan for KU’s future in the broad area of
biomedical research.
A second opportunity for new research expansion became available through NIH and a group of KU
scientists developed a proposal for the establishment of a center for Biomedical Research (CBMR)
with the focus on drug design. The first submission (Smissman as principal investigator) was
unsuccessful. Smissman unexpectedly died in 1974 during the preparation of the revised proposal.
Mertes took over the proposal and the revised submission was funded. The Smissman Research
Laboratories were established to house the administrative and research cores of this NIH grant.
Later, KTEC fostered the creation of Centers of Excellence on state campuses and Higuchi wrote a
successful grant to establish the Center for BioAnalytical Research (CBAR). CBAR was
administratively run through the existing administrative core of the CBMR. Later, Dr.’s Borchardt
and Michaelis took on the directorship of the CBMR and, after Higuchi’s death, this collection of
highly successful collaborative research programs became the Higuchi Biosciences Center. It is clear
12
that Matt Mertes played a fundamental role in the west campus research establishment that we have
today.
Mertes’ role in our getting into the high-field NMR game is equally impressive and illustrative of his
forward thinking leadership. Faculty in several departments realized the need for a high–field
instrument. At least two attempts to obtain a 300 MHz instrument were made to NSF through grants
spearheaded by faculty in the Department of Chemistry. A third attempt was made through the NIH
program and the application was submitted through radiation biophysics with subprojects written by
faculty in all areas of the biomedical research community. This proposal was successful and KU was
now in the high-field NMR game!
Mertes and medicinal chemistry graduate students took over the “daily care and feeding” of the
instrument. He quickly learned how expensive this was and I recall several occasions when Mertes
would come around to see all of us with a clipboard in hand soliciting contributions of thousands of
dollars each to keep the 300 MHz NMR running. He realized that we really needed a dedicated lab
director and the establishment of a fee for service to cover the costs of running the instrument. He also
knew that the 300 MHz instrument was just a temporary stopgap on our road to NMR excellence and
that a 500 MHz instrument should be the next step. Selfishly, he needed such an instrument for the
research he and his wife Kristin planned to do.
Unfortunately, NIH only provided enough money in their grant program to buy a 300 MHz
instrument. Mertes convinced Frances Horowitz, then head of the Graduate School and Office of
Research, that we should apply for another 300 MHz machine but, if the grant was successful,
purchase a 500 MHz machine and hire a lab director to coordinate all of the NMR activity on campus.
She agreed and promised to provide the cost difference between a 300 and 500 MHz machine if
Mertes was successful. She also agreed that they would establish an NMR Laboratory and hire a
Ph.D.-level director. This grant was successfully funded, Horowitz kept her word, and KU purchased
500 MHz machine. Soon thereafter David van der Velde was recruited by Mertes and hired to become
KU’s first (and current) director of the NMR laboratory. Of course van der Velde (along with Mertes
and others) has kept this facility growing. The most recent gem is the recently acquired 800 MHz
instrument and the establishment of the Structure Biology Center (SBC) to house it and other related
operations.
In summary, Matt’s role in getting us started and knowing where we wanted to be ten to twenty years
from where we were, led to this success. It seems fitting that the 800 MHz NMR suite in SBC should
bear Mertes’ name, in recognition of his significant contributions to the NMR facility as well as the
broader biomedical science expansion in the past 40 years. The year 2007 marks the 20th anniversary
of the creation of the KU Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Laboratory and it is also Matt’s 75th birth
year.
13
Albert William Burgstahler, PhD, 1953 (Organic Chemistry) Harvard University, Professor of
Chemistry Emeritus, University of Kansas.
Albert Burgstahler earned his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry at the University of Notre
Dame in 1949. He then went on to Harvard University where he received his M.A. and PhD in
organic chemistry in 1950 and 1953, respectively. Dr. Burgstahler’s dissertation at Harvard under the
direction of Professor Gilbert Stork was on the synthesis of terpenoid natural products. (In 2001,
Stork, then at Columbia, published the “first” total synthesis of quinine.) During 1952-53, Albert was
an Eli Lilly postdoctoral fellow at Birkbeck College, London, England, in the laboratory of Dr.
Derrick H.R. Barton, who in 1969 shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Dr. Odd Hassel of
Norway. In 1953-54, Albert was a temporary instructor at Notre Dame, after which he became a
research associate in Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in the burgeoning research
group of Professor Eugene van Tamelen, also a Harvard PhD from the Stork group.
At the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Burgstahler became acquainted with Dr. Edward E. Smissman,
who in 1952 had earned his PhD under Professor van Tamelen and he had the good fortune to work on
a synthesis of the indole alkaloid yohimbine in van Tamelen’s laboratory adjacent to Ed’s office. On
occasion Ed and Clare would stop by Albert’s lab for a chat and in short order a rather warm and
lasting friendship developed. Albert said that he vividly recalls the extensive range and breadth of Dr.
Smissman’s interest in organic chemistry and natural products that practically knew no bounds.
In 1956, Professor Burgstahler joined the faculty of the chemistry department at KU as an instructor
and rose through the ranks to become professor of chemistry in 1965. Shortly after his arrival at KU,
Albert became acquainted with Professor Joe Burckhalter in the School of Pharmacy. Because of their
shared interest in the chemistry of natural products, Albert would occasionally consult with Joe who at
the time was deeply involved in the chemistry and development of medicinal agents and anti-malarial
drugs. As Albert recalls, Professor Burckhalter was quite single minded in his scientific ideas and
often worked independently on the synthesis of new anti-malarial drugs, partly in collaboration with
Parke Davis & Co., where he had been employed before coming to KU.
14
Professor Emeritus Earl Huyser, University of Kansas, PhD, 1954, University of Chicago.
Professor Earl Huyser is originally from Holland, Michigan, and graduated with a bachelors of
Science degree at Hope Collage in 1951. He achieved a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the
University of Chicago in 1954. In 1956, Earl Huyser served in the Army at Columbia University and
went on to work for the Dow Chemical Company in 1957. Professor Huyser began his teaching
career at the University of Kansas as Assistant Professor in the Organic chemistry department in 1959,
and retired his professorship in 1994.
“One day in the fall of 1960, I got a call from Ed Smissman asking me to join him for coffee in the
conference room to discuss science and the pros of chemistry department collaboration. From that
day forward, Ed and I would engage in afternoon coffee rituals right up until his death. From one
organic chemist to another, we strongly believed in the future developments of great discoveries yet to
come in Organic and Medicinal chemistry structures working in unison with profound potential. Ed
spoke highly of Professor Eugene van Tamelan, his PhD advisor at the University of Wisconsin.
Professor Van Tamelen superimposed the impact it made on his internal and abstract thought process
in bringing medicinal chemistry to its full potential. Ed Smissman had an astounding vision as to
where medicinal chemistry should go, and desperately wanted his graduate students to be involved in
that vision. Ed would often say that he’d rather be a big fish in a small pond so he could foster the
great vision of chemistry and its medicinal implications. One of the greatest feet of Ed’s tenure was
orchristating a major role in securing Professor Takeru Higuchi’s transition to the University of
Kansas in 1967. Ed and Takeru were close colleagues at the University of Wisconsin, and Professor
Higuchi was already nationally renowned as the Father of physical Chemistry. Professor Higuchi’s
profound corporate influence had much to do with the buildup of KU’s chemistry research
laboratories on 21st and Iowa that further rocketed the departments of Medicinal and Pharmaceutical
Chemistry to the best science learning institutions in the country. Ed had tremendous influence with
his students, and he was just simply a great teacher; the students were his family. Ed Smissman was
proud of his Jewish heritage and was well connected among the Jewish community worldwide. It was
through his connection with Professor Hans Wynberg, a Dutch Jew, from the University of Gronegen,
Holland, that established my visiting professorship their in 1964 to 1965. Hans Wynberg was sent to
the United States while a young boy along with his brother in 1945 after losing much of his family in
the Holocaust. Ed Smissman established a very defined and measured quality of collaboration with all
his students and faculty as well with other department heads. He was the vision and means to the end
of the final product, and the results were always transparent; Ed was the right man for the right time in
the right place for the University of Kansas, and who knows what greater accomplishments he would
have achieved had he lived beyond 1974”.
15
Professor Govind J. Kapadia, PhD, 1959, Student of Dr. Smissman at the University of Wisconsin,
1955 to 1959.
Doctor Govind J. kapadia is a professor of Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry at Howard
University, Washington D.C. He obtained his B.S.C. in Chemistry, B.Sc. (Teach) in Pharmacy and
M.Sc. (Tech) in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Department of Chemical Technology, University of
Bombay, India in the early 1950s. He further obtained his PhD at the University of Wisconsin under
Dr. Smissman in 1959.
“A friend of mine in the early 1950s, named Dr. A.N. Reo, from the City of Bombay, India, obtained
his PhD in Physical Pharmacy under the advisorship of Professor Takeru Higuchi at the University of
Wisconsin. In early 1955, our conversation on the University of Wisconsin and the highly reputable
medicinal chemistry department lead by Professor Ed Smissman that further enticed me to apply for a
PhD program there. I was accepted at Wisconsin in 1955 and pursued my PhD in Pharmaceutical
Chemistry under Professor Ed Smissman. I learned much from Dr. Smissman on pharmaceutical and
medicinal chemistry; Ed involved me in a joint project with Dr. Stanley Beck working on specific
growth factors of alfalfa in conducting experimentations to isolate the factor compounds from the
source. However, many of my courses at Wisconsin were in Organic chemistry under professors W. S.
Johnson, Eugene E. van Tamalen, Harland Goering, and Samuel Maclvaine. Most extraordinary in
my memory of Dr Smissman’s achievements was when he introduced medicinal chemistry as an
independent scope in the American Chemical Society that set a new precedent and standard for future
medicinal drug discovery”.
16
Professor Emeritus Joseph G. Cannon, University of Wisconsin and close colleague of Dr. Ed
Smissman from 1956 to 1960 at Madison, Wisconsin.
Joe Cannon and Ed Smissman were faculty colleagues at the University of Wisconsin and remained
close friends for many years thereafter. Ed was the medicinal chemistry department head and he had
personally recommended Joe for an Assistant Professorship at the University of Wisconsin in 1956.
“What stands out in my mind is that Ed Smissman was extremely wise in reading people. He allowed
his students to develop on their own merit while trailing them on the way up the intellectual latter. I
was a young and inexperienced professor, and Ed ensured that I do just the same with my own
students. Ed helped me tremendously in my early days of professing; he assigned me my first
graduate student in 1956. Ed was rather unusual in some respects but very savvy in connecting with
the right people, with the right focus, at the right time. It was, however, the distinguished Professor
Carl Pfeiffer at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1947 that enticed Ed Smissman to aggressively
focus on pharmacology science that would soon expand his horizons on future dynamic drug
discovery and research developments; Carl was really the early mustered-seed to Ed’s great success in
research developments.
On the heels of early department progress, it was Ed Smissman and Joe Burckhalter who greased the
wheels and modeled the department’s high standards of core values that the University of Kansas
exemplifies today. Joe broke the ground, and Ed expanded by leading a torch of deep cerebral
penetration for his students, and the assistant faculty to perpetually accelerate in the evolution of
biochemical discovery. Ed and Clair Smissman were my very dear friends; and Ed was also my best
man at our wedding at Madison, Wisconsin, in 1958”.
Professor Joe Cannon retired from active teaching and research in 1996.
17
Professor David Lemal, Dartmouth College, Colleague of Dr. Smissman at the University of
Wisconsin, 1958-1960.
Dr. David Lemal was an Instructor and Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the
University of Wisconsin from 1958 to 1965 and a close friend of Professor Ed Smissman.
“Almost immediately upon my arrival at Wisconsin, Ed Smissman befriended me. I was fresh out of
the box from graduate school at Harvard and quite uncertain about how to get started with a research
program. Ed had no real reason to become involved with me, a green new instructor from another
department, but he did so simply because he was an extremely kind and friendly guy. While the
senior colleagues in my own department left me to sink or swim in the tenure game, Ed gave me much
encouragement and guidance throughout our time together at Wisconsin. He set a great example of
how a professor should interact with students and coworkers, and helped me to understand that the
people were more important than the science. It was he, not one of my chemistry colleagues, who
served as my mentor. He and Clare also had many dinner parties for students and friends, and I
enjoyed them greatly. In 1964, he invited me down to the University of Kansas to introduce me to the
Medicinal Chemistry program and faculty as a potential hire. I was favorably impressed, but decided
that Kansas wasn’t the place for me. Ed was understanding about that, and I later flew to Kansas from
the East Coast just to seek his advice about my future direction in academia. I will always remember
Ed Smissman as a wonderful role model and friend”.
Today, Professor Emeritus David Lemal is a Research Professor at Dartmouth College, New
Hampshire.
18
Jules B. LaPidus, PhD., 1958, former student of Dr. Ed Smissman from the Universities of Illinois and
Wisconsin.
Dr. Jules LaPidus received his B.S. degree in Pharmacy from the University of Illinois and M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin. In 1958 he joined the faculty of Ohio State
University as assistant professor of medicinal chemistry, and obtained full professor status in 1967.
Dr. LaPidus’ primary research focus was in stereochemistry of autonomic drugs. In 1972, he was
appointed Associate Dean for Research in the Graduate School, and became Vice Provost for
Research and Dean of the Graduate School in 1974. In 1984, he became President of the Council of
Graduate Schools, an international organization of 450 colleges and universities actively involved in
graduate education, based in Washington, D.C. He retired in June 2000.
“While attending the University of Illinois at Chicago, I met Ed Smissman who was then a new
assistant professor of medicinal chemistry. He was the instructor in my first course in organic
chemistry, and strongly encouraged me to pursue graduate work in medicinal chemistry as a possible
career path. In 1952 Ed secured a summer job for me at the Glidden Corporation in Chicago. Glidden
was a chemical company that specialized in food and paint products, but in the summer of 1952, a
small group, led by Percy Julian, one of America’s outstanding steroid chemists, was making a
precursor for cortisone, a new wonder drug for the treatment of arthritis, and I became a member of
that group. This experience in industrial synthetic chemistry was invaluable to me. In the summer of
1953, Ed got me another job in a biochemistry laboratory at the University of Illinois, College of
Medicine in Chicago. By that time, I had become quite friendly with both Ed and Claire Smissman
and our professional and social bonds would endure for years to come. While an undergrad student at
Illinois, I also met and became a close friend of a fellow student named Matt Mertes, who would later
follow Ed to the University of Kansas.
Largely due to Ed’s mentoring, I applied to the University of Wisconsin in the fall of 1954 for
graduate study. During my first year at Wisconsin, Ed accepted a faculty position there and I ended up
doing my PhD work with him. Ed was a first-rate scientist and an inspiring teacher, as well as being a
great major professor. He would often say he just expected his students to work half days (12-hours),
and he meant it. It was not unusual for Ed to come by the lab at night to chat with his students, and he
made us feel like colleagues. I also remember the many times Ed and Clair had gatherings of students
and friends at their homes, both in Madison and Lawrence; they cared deeply about his students, and
always treated them like family.
While a student at Wisconsin I also met Professor Takeru Higuchi, and he was indeed an incredible
man, and a brilliant physical chemist. Ed and Tak insisted on a strong chemistry background for
medicinal and pharmaceutical graduate education, and their work and the work of their students had a
profound effect on medicinal and pharmaceutical chemical education and practice. Another major
figure was Professor Lloyd Parks. I was a teaching assistant for him during my first two years in
graduate school. He left the University of Wisconsin in 1956 to become the Dean of the College of
Pharmacy at Ohio State University. Ed and Lloyd were close colleagues and Ed strongly encouraged
me to apply for a teaching position at Ohio State. I got the job and in 1958 and joined the faculty as
assistant professor in medicinal chemistry. A few years later, Les Mitscher joined the faculty at OSU
and we became good friends and colleagues. In 1975 Les departed to become Department Chairman at
the University of Kansas.
I stayed in close contact with the Smissman’s and we would meet at chemical society conferences
around the country with other former students and friends; the evening gatherings out on the town
were great fun. After Ed became the Department Chair at KU in 1960, I often went there for meetings,
and in that way became acquainted with many of the faculty in Medicinal Chemistry and Chemistry.
19
The Smissman Group bonded like family and we maintained our professional and personal ties, even
after the death of Ed Smissman in 1974”.
20
Professor Gilbert Hite, PhD. University of Wisconsin, 1959, Student of Dr. Edward Smissman.
Dr. Gilbert Hite is a retired medicinal chemistry professor from the University of Connecticut.
Gilbert pursued his masters and PhD education at the University of Wisconsin from 1955 to 1959. His
first teaching job upon graduation was at Howard University, Washington DC, in 1959. He later went
on to teach at Columbia University in 1961. In 1971, Gilbert did a two year stint with the National
Institute of Health in a postdoctoral “special” fellowship program at the University of Pittsburg,
Pennsylvania, in X-Ray Crystallography.
“Prior to 1956, my PhD mentor was Professor Jim Floyd but when Ed Smissman came to the
University of Wisconsin, I already knew of Ed’s superb teaching reputation at the University of
Illinois at Chicago, and opted to finish my work under Smissman upon Floyd’s departure that same
year. There was no doubt that Ed Smissman and Takeru Higuchi were icons of their day; everyone
was awe struck of their brilliant and forward ideas in connecting bio and physical chemistry to new
and unheard of levels. When Ed became my new advisor, he assigned me the challenge of
reconverting the complex synthesis of compounds now used in Demerol. The last step was a complex
and low-yield in the process that involves a chemical rearrangement known as the Favorskii
rearrangement, where the process mechanism was worked out in simpler and user-friendly
compounds. The chemistry was actually a unique process for the day in the stereochemistry
rearrangement that ultimately solved the problem and thus enabled me to complete my PhD theses.
Based on this rather “unique” research my theses won the Lunsford-Richardson pharmaceutical award
in 1959.
Ed Smissman was just a gentle and futuristic thinker, the kind of Professor you want in your pocket
for life. Although I never really knew what kind of class teacher he was at Wisconsin. I did however
know the Higuchi brother’s reputation and their teaching style in physical pharmacy courses and both
of whom were highly reputable for being the first to apply real physical chemistry to pharmaceutical
delivery systems”.
21
Professor Kristin Bowman-James, University of Kansas, Department of Chemistry, provided notes on
her late husband, Professor Mathias P. Mertes, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal
Chemistry, 1960 to 1989.
Professor Mathias P. Mertes (Matt) early and insatiable interest in chemistry stemmed from
working in his fathers pharmacy in Chicago in the 1940s delivering prescription drugs on his bicycle.
He later achieved his PhD in chemistry from the University of Minnesota in 1960, an M.S. in
medicinal chemistry at the University of Texas in 1956, and a B.S. in pharmacy at the University of
Illinois at Chicago in 1954. Matt began his assistant professorship at the University of Kansas in the
Department of Medicinal Chemistry in 1960 and remained there till his death in 1989. Ed Smissman,
Matt’s undergraduate instructor at the University of Illinois at Chicago in the early 1950s, had moved
to the University of Kansas a few months prior as the Department Chair. Matt Mertes was promoted
full professor in 1968, and after Ed Smissman’s untimely death in 1974, he served as the interim
Department Chair from 1974 to 1975 before relinquishing the chairmanship to Dr. Lester Mitscher.
As an instructor, Matt Mertes was extremely meticulous, dedicated and popular with his graduate and
undergraduate students. He achieved several teaching awards, the University of Kansas EXXON
Award in 1986, and the Rho Chi Teaching Award presented by students of the school of Pharmacy, to
site only few. He was also elected as Chair, and Vice Chair, of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry
of the American Chemical Society. Matt was one of many who advocated the practice of continuing
education programs for licensed pharmacists in the State of Kansas and did extensive travel around the
State to speak on the subject of delivering quality Pharmacy service. He published over 100 scientific
papers in the discipline of medicinal and biochemical research, and graduated 23 PhD students and 5
M.S. students, and several postdoctoral students along the way.
Kristin and Matt met at the University of Kansas in 1975. At that time Matt was working on the
design and synthesis of thymidylate synthetase inhibitor systems, the enzymes present in the thymus
glands. Kristin and Matt married in 1976. Matt and Kristin would occasionally host pig roast in his
back yard for the morning, for pigs that had been sacrificed for their thymus glands (sweetbreads).
Matt didn’t even start on synthetic macrocycles until 1983 when he went to Dr. Lehn’s laboratory in
France. Matt received an NIH career development award in 1967, and again in 1972 that enabled him
to spend one year in the laboratory of Professor Frantisek Sorm at the Czech Republics Academy of
Sciences in Praha, and six months at the University of Colorado to study in vitro mRNA translation.
In the spring of 1983, he and Kristin did a sabbatical in the laboratory of the Nobel laureate JeanMarie Lehn at the University of Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France, to collaborate and further
research the capabilities of synthetic macrocycles as working models for enzymes. Where is he
getting this? Professor Bowman-James said “the program at Strasbourg invited exuberant and exciting
biomedical discussions “it was really fascinating chemistry and we were excited that Jean Marie let us
take the research back to the University of Kansas for further research and development”.
22
Professor Emeritus Phil Portoghasee, PhD, 1961, University of Wisconsin, student of Ed Smissman at
Wisconsin and Kansas.
Professor Portoghasee received his B.S. and M.S. in Pharmacy at Columbia University in 1953 and
1957 respectively. He commenced his PhD program in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of
Wisconsin in 1961, and Ed Smissman was Phil’s advisor at both Wisconsin and Kansas. When Ed
moved to Kansas in 1960 to assume the Chair job Phil elected to follow Ed and complete his Doctoral
work at KU. In the last year of his Masters Program at Columbia University, he sought the help of a
close friend of Dr. Smissman, Professor K. Malspeis at Columbia University to write a letter to Ed
requesting an application to the University of Wisconsin to pursue a Doctoral program in his
medicinal chemistry department.
“Ed had that contagious charisma that infected everyone around him, both professional and
personally. He certainly had a profound influence on my life from the very beginning. In Retrospect,
many of my past successes are owed to Ed’s manner of teaching and study discipline and learning the
art of chemistry in its entirety. I was working in a two-man lab with my fellow grad student, Donald
Witiok, right next to Smissman’s office. We were working on the syntheses of anti-cancer agents
when we’d get into a heated argument over the chemistry at hand and Ed would storm in and yell
fellows, “settle-down”! Ed helped me get a postdoctoral position at KU and taught me the skills
needed for writing research grants at KU; my first submitted science grant project for Minnesota was
accepted and fully funded”.
“My wife, Chris, and I were very close to Ed and Clair, much like extended family. When Chris was
eight months pregnant she would stay at their place while I’d be away on business because we had so
few resources to fall upon. It was the saddest day of my life when Ed passed in July of 1974. Ed knew
the Dean of the School of pharmacy at the University of Minisstoa that had the influence in helping
me get my first teaching job there in 1961”.
Dr. Phil Portaghasse did a lifetime research career at the University of Minnesota where he specialized
in the area of Opioids and Gastec’s. He has over ten folders of chemistry research work accomplished
and is the Editor of the Journal of Medicine Magazine since 1972. He has also received the
prestigious Smissman award in 1991.
23
Professor Robert A. Wiley, PhD, Assistant Professor, 1962-1984, University of Kansas, Department
of Medicinal Chemistry.
Dr. Bob Wiley was on the faculty at the University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry
from 1962 to 1984, and was the Associate Dean, College of Pharmacy at KU from 1983 to 1984.
Professor Wiley has published over 45 papers that involved various syntheses of potential drugs and
chemical mechanisms in toxicology. His vast research interest was in the design of inhibitors of
enzymes of cardiovascular significance, endothelia converting enzyme, and the role of platelet
activating factor and its analogues in blood pressure control and blood platelet activation. Bob Wiley
is the grandson of the legendary Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, founder of the Food, Drug and
Cosmetic (Act) Administration in the early 1900s that later became the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA).
“In the beginning it was the Russian Sputnik space program in 1957 that led to a new science
exploration agenda, followed by massive grants by the federal government to universities and health
science institutions across the county. This effort was to promote and advance in chemical science that
suddenly led to vast increases in professor staff and new graduate students in medicinal and
bimolecular chemistry developments. In 1962, I was a new assistant professor in the medicinal
chemistry department just out of the college box; post doctoral programs were a rarity in those days.
Ed Smissman and Matt Mertes were just remarkable professors to collaborate with. Ed had a very
unique ability to get people inspired and work together, internal and external. His leadership and
science knowledge skills were superb in getting people and other chemistry departments to collaborate
and focus in one direction. Indeed, he succeeded in getting the futuristic science moving to where it
needed to go. Although, other science departments frowned upon the medicinal chemistry philosophy
because they thought that the department’s agenda wasn’t academic enough.
Albeit, Ed Smissman was ultimately responsible for turning the University of Kansas from a simple
farm school to the best Medicinal Chemistry school in the country. He would identify a community
science problem and entice other science professionals to get involved. Ed’s highest priority in the
social aspect of the science departments was to meet, collaborate and resolve in unison. He always
had a social gathering scheduled after speaking events, and he expected everyone to participate; even
during holiday dinners. Matt Mertes, and Ed Smissman, came in together as colleagues in 1960. At
the time, Ed already had about 40 graduate students in tow. Ed’s contribution to teaching and science
research education was way above reproach, and farther advanced in science theory more then many
other universities around the country.
The MIKI program was his brainchild and hence emulated across the country. Ed’s questions to
students on medicinal problems were always penetrating leaving room for deeper cerebral penetration
and he always let you know when he didn’t agree with anything. It was a treasure working with Ed
Smissman and Matt Mertes and especially for having been part of the University of Kansas as “the”
institution for learning Pharmaceutical Chemistry”.
24
Professor Marlin Harmony, PhD 1962, University of Kansas, Department of Chemistry
“Dr. Edward Smissman played the ultimate role of professor extraordinaire in salesmanship and
research developments in all aspects of medicinal chemistry. He knew the field of medicinal
chemistry was vast and had much to be discovered. Ed’s questions and theories of biomedical science
mounted and methodically addressed each one until he had the answers that either proved or disproved
the science at hand. The chemistry morning faculty coffee hour was a time for fielding such questions
of science among his peers and for building solid collaborations among the science departments. Ed’s
team-camaraderie approach became the premier avenue for obtaining the funding required for
research, and was widely influential in getting the HSAA award Grant of 3,000,000 for advanced
chemistry research and joint collaborative support in 1969”.
“This Grant (huge for its time) also led to the rapid growth in interdisciplinary chemical and biological
research and the construction of McCollum Laboratories, the first in a series of labs used for
interdisciplinary research. Takeru Higuchi arrived as Ed’s right-hand man in 1967 and, as Regent’s
Professor, was soon expanding interdisciplinary efforts in grand entrepreneurial style. Takeru knew
the art of attracting big money and had an excellent relationship with the KU Endowment Association.
When Takeru became a Vice President of Alza Corporation in California, he solicited the help of the
Endowment Association to build an Alza research laboratory on Endowment Association property to
further Alza’s aims in drug development basic research. Alza sold its KU interest a few years later,
and they were superseded by Higuchi’s newest enterprise, the Interex-Corporation. In 1980, after
Interex was purchased by Merck, the chemistry department was pleased to find that its 12,500-share of
Interex stock were worth over $500,000!”
25
Professors Dick and Barbara Schowen, PhDs, 1962 and 1964, University of Kansas, Department of
Medicinal Chemistry.
Barbara and Dick Schowen came to the University of Kansas in 1963, right out of graduate school
and newly married. Dick was an assistant professor in the chemistry Department, and Barbara was
finishing up her Doctoral thesis requirements. Barbara began teaching at Baker University in 1964,
and worked as Ed’s research assistant during the summers from 1965 to 1974. Barbara pointed out
that Ed Smissman had a great impact on her chemistry career. Barbara’s training had been in physical
organic chemistry and working on organic synthesis and enzyme-catalyzed reactions expanded her
experience immensely. She commented that one of Ed’s many qualities was his ability to capitalize on
each one’s talents and exploit each one’s potential.
Dick Schowen said that Ed Smissman was a leader and innovator of interdisciplinary research at the
University of Kansas. “He had the leadership ability to bring together people in various science
disciplines and foster an environment of cooperation and creativity. Ed was responsible for a dramatic
recognition of the importance of stereochemistry, (that is the three-dimensional structure of molecules
and the degree to which they can freely move) in the biological activities, and particularly the
pharmacological properties, of many classes of compounds. Different three-dimensional forms of a
molecule are called “conformation”, and Ed introduced to medicinal chemistry the vital
conformational aspects of drug design and action. Ed took the wide angle view on everything and was
widely respected as a chemist. Ed showed me to be a far better chemist then I otherwise would have
been, and taught me the essential academic and administrative survival skills needed to function at a
University. Ed was a superior multi-tasking scientist who encourage the KU chemical, biological and
pharmaceutical science departments to think and work as one team so each department could have its
own stake in the final, integrated science. The wide range and diversity of Ed’s thinking contrasted
with and complemented his thoroughly focused, goal-oriented character. The kind of clear and
creative thinking, deeply based in fundamental scientific principles that Ed Smissman and Takeru
Higuchi shared formed a perfect basis for programs in the creation and delivery of drugs. Both were
absolute geniuses in business and scientific knowledge and skill, and also possessed a sort of natural
leader’s savvy. Over the long term, the University and the State of Kansas benefited greatly from
these talents and abilities. In addition, although Ed was not one for small talk, he and his wife Clare
made department social events a priority; these occasions emerged as an essential element in the
research and educational programs of the department and an instrument of influence in integrating the
various departments behind common goals”.
Professor Barbara Schowen spoke at the 2006 Edward E. Smissman Memorial Lecture and said “I
don’t think I have ever met two people (Ed and Clare Smissman) with such contrasting personalities,
but who at the same time were so compatible. They obviously admired and thought the world of each
other. But how different they were! Clare was flamboyant, dramatic, a self-described “women of
style”. She had strong but well-informed opinions, especially of politics, and voiced them vigorously;
she was smart, savvy and sophisticated in a way that Lawrence didn’t always see, not in the 1960’s.
Clare added style to our lives. Ed, on the other hand, was quiet and steady, a calming influence,
dependable like a rock; he was honest and straightforward. He was a gentleman, and served as an
example for how to behave, in private and public life, as an individual, a research scientist and
teacher”.
Another far-reaching thinker in this period was Matt Mertes, a colleague in the department of
medicinal chemistry, who introduced the potential importance of the nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) to
medicinal chemistry by conceiving of artificial materials that could simulate the nucleic acids, bind to
them, and interfere with their actions when they were contributing to pathological conditions such as
the growth of cancer cells. This brilliant insight long proceeded such discoveries and concepts as
antisense-nucleic acids and gene therapy.
26
Professor Charles Barfknecht, PhD, 1964, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of
Kansas, student of Dr. Edward Smissman.
Professor Charles Barfknecht is a Professor Emeritus of Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry
at the College of Pharmacy, University of Iowa. He did his undergraduate work at the University of
Wisconsin in Pharmacy (B.S. 1960) where he worked as an Undergraduate research assistant for Dr.
Smissman. At the University of Kansas he held a National Institutes of Health Predoctoral fellowship
and received his PhD with Dr. Smissman as his major professor.
“Three 1960 graduates, N. Dahle, J. Sorenson, and C. Barfknecht, of the School of Pharmacy,
University of Wisconsin, followed Ed Smissman to the University of Kansas for graduate studies in
medicinal chemistry. Much credit for the reputation of The School of Pharmacy and Medicinal
Chemistry is indeed due to the leadership and efforts of Ed Smissman. The School was made even
better when Ed enticed Takeru Higuchi to come to KU to head-up the Department of Physical
Pharmacy. Ed Smissman and (Joe Cannon, University of Iowa) were great friends and colleagues at
Madison, Wisconsin, and they both had some extraordinary ideas on improving the inter department
learning of disciplines, particularly on delivering the right science to the right people at the right level.
The MIKI meetings revolved from the philosophical ideas from the close personal relationships at the
Universities of Minnesota, Illinois, Kansas, and Iowa. Ed also had some progressive thoughts on
bringing the right mix of foreign students to KU. He believed that only two students from a foreign
country at a time fostered mingling of all students, where as three or more encourage subculture clubs.
Ed Smissman was an extraordinary mentor, not only for the Department of Medicinal Chemistry but
also for the University of Kansas as a whole. I considered the entire department faculty a first class
team because of Ed’s ability to secure the right people in the right jobs at the right time; his
intellectual legacy will live through the ages”.
27
Professor Wendel L. Nelson, PhD, 1965, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Kansas, Student of
Dr. Edward Smissman.
Today, Dr. Nelson is a full Professor and former Chairman of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry
at the University of Washington. Wendel obtained his B.S. in Pharmacy with high honors at Idaho
State College at Pocatello. While at the University of Kansas pursuing his PhD, he was an NIH
research Grant assistant, 1962-1963, and a research assistant for KU, 1963-1965. He held an NSF
Cooperative Fellowship in 1964-1965. In 1966 he coauthored with Professor Edward Smissman,
Professor Jules LaPidus, and Dr. J.L. Day, on “Conformational Aspects of Acetycholine Receptor
Sites”.
Wendel Nelson highlighted extensively on the synthesis of Conformational design in the Smissman
memorial book published in 1977; he said that Ed’s advanced research at KU in the area of
Conformational aspects of drug action was an evolutionary process which seems to have developed
along with a number of advances in Organic and Medicinal Chemistry. These advances include
development of the concepts of conformational analysis in organic chemistry, which were probably
further stimulated by the in-depth exposure to this topic provided to Ed’s early graduate students by
Professor Gene van Tamelen and W.S Johnson in organic chemistry courses at Wisconsin in the mid1950s.
“I had a great time at the University of Kansas and was fortunate to have had a superb Prof like Ed
Smissman to draw from. Professor John Bergen, a former doctoral student of Dr. Smissman at
Wisconsin, was my chemistry professor at Idaho State College in 1960. John probably wrote a letter
to Ed Smissman on my behalf in 1962. Ed’s work in “conformational design” made my lab research
exciting to say the least, and gave me my first graduate student, Dwaine Miller, who later went on to
teach chemistry at the University of Tennessee. I am pleased that several of the undergraduate
pharmacy students in my lab at the University of Washington went on to KU to obtain their PhD’s, in
medicinal chemistry with Matt Mertes, Ed Smissman, and Gary Grunewald; a fact that I’m very proud
of”.
28
Professor Morris D. Faiman, PhD, 1965, University of Minnesota. Today, Professor of Pharmacology
and Toxicology, University of Kansas.
Morris Faiman was a graduate student at the University of Minnesota when he met Professor
Edward Smissman while Professor Smissman was visiting the university in 1964. Morris was
undecided on his academic career and Ed invited him down to the University of Kansas to explore a
teaching position. At the time, there were only five faculties in the School of Pharmacy. Morris was
sold on Ed Smissman’s philosophy of teaching and research, and the idea of teaching at KU appeared
an exciting endeavor. Morris began as a new faculty member at the University of Kansas on February
1, 1965.
“In 1964 when I first met Ed, I was not only impressed with Ed’s aura of profound energy, but he
displayed a resounding futuristic walking knowledge of science and research. His impression upon
students and faculty alike were incredible to the point that you didn’t want to miss a single footprint of
his that was left behind in the face of new discoveries. Ed ensured and made us recognize that we all
had a stake in the collaboration process and the development of the new school, and no one was left
behind. What we did and accomplished was ours. The word mine was never part of the vocabulary.
Ed’s humble and modest aura, great chemistry, and leadership were heard loud and clear throughout
Malott Hall and beyond. My start-up package when I arrived in 1965 was $1,500, and with these
funds I had to build a research program, pay a research assistant, and develop a teaching curriculum.
Even during that period, that amount of money did not go very far. Dr. Smissman was always
wonderful to me and treated me like a son. He would do anything to help me get where I needed to be,
financially and otherwise.
When the School of Pharmacy was departmentalized in 1969, I became part of what was to become
the Pharmacology department. I was fortunate in being able to help Duane Wenzel in its formation. In
those days getting department financial support was far less beurocratic. Clark Wesco, then
Chancellor would often agree on a handshake and a few cocktails at Ed’s house to commit monies
needed for Department, School, and Ed-initiated University programs; you’d only need to remind him
the next morning of the amount of money he agreed upon. Yep, those were the days”.
29
Professor James McChesney, PhD, 1965, University of Kansas, Department of Botany and Medicinal
Chemistry.
Professor James McChesney did his PhD (1965) in Organic Chemistry and a Masters in Botany
at Indiana University, and obtained his B.S. in Chemical Technology at Iowa State University in 1961.
Jim was hired on at the University of Kansas in 1965 with an initial appointment in the Botany
department. After a few years into teaching Botany and Biology, Jim and Ed Smissman discussed a
combination of Botany and Medicinal Chemistry as a joint teaching venture and both highly agreed on
the benefits of bonding Botany and Medicinal Chemistry as a dual track program of study. In 1968,
Professor McChesney began a joint appointment in teaching botany and medicinal chemistry to
undergraduate and graduate students as both disciplines share a commonality of interest in natural and
native products from the prospective of botanical and chemical sciences. Ed strongly believed that the
two disciplines, studied in concert, would capture the scientific essence of biochemical and
pharmaceutical drug discovery and development. Ed was a true pioneer in understanding and
developing functional groups in the molecular arrangement that would explain the influence of the
structures more definitively on the pharmacological activity of drug molecules.
“While at the University of Kansas for over 13 years, I enjoyed the benefits of a very unique collegial
experience in large part thanks to Ed Smissman’s futuristic vision of biochemical and pharmaceutical
sciences. Ed’s talent and leadership in the department of medicinal chemistry were echoed not only
across Ku’s campus but also literally on every college campus science department throughout the
country. The qualities of department faculty far exceeded the high standard of prime teaching and
out-reach programs to other internal departments and schools across the country. Ed was considered a
humble person in many ways, never interested in aspiring to higher office. He personally reached out
and mentored me hand in hand providing the opportunity for me to develop in my own right and
ability.
I considered Matt Mertes a great teacher who thought well ahead of his time, recognizing the
connections between the fields of genetics, biochemistry and pharmaceuticals discovery and
development. I had the pleasure of collaborating with Ed in recruiting Takeru Higuchi to KU in effort
to finalize the unique collegial environment in synthesizing new disciplines in biochemical and
physical chemistry. Takeru certainly brought to KU a new dimension of entaprenurialship and
laboratory development technology, and a savvy business financial talent to boot. As for me, I was
just a simple farm boy at heart who became very interested in natural products early on at Iowa State.
In 1978, I was hired on at “Ole-Miss” University of Mississippi, School of Pharmacy, as Chair of the
Department of Pharmacology, a department focused on research and teaching of natural products. I
moved over to direct the research institute of pharmaceutical sciences at Ole Miss in 1988. This was a
special State funded program in research and development for the potential benefit of the people of
Mississippi. One of our research programs involved the growth and testing of some illicit drugs for
the National Institute of Drug Abuse in a program to assist in understanding their health impact. As
director of the Research Institute at Ole Miss, I lead an effort to establish the National Center for
Natural Products on campus. The National Center has established itself as a premier research
institution in natural products for drug discovery and development in the academic environment.
In 1996, I left the University of Mississippi to work for NaPro Bio Therapeutics Inc in Boulder
Colorado to try my hand at “real world” pharmaceutical development from a natural product-Taxol.
NaPro later change its name to Tapestry Pharmaceuticals where today I am Chief Scientific Officer of
Natural Products”.
30
Professor Tom Lemke, PhD, 1966, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, former
student of Ed Smissman.
Dr. Thomas Lemke is now a retired medicinal chemistry professor from the University of
Houston. He began his academia career in the School of Pharmacy (B.S. 1958) at the University of
Wisconsin in 1958 where he first met Ed Smissman, and later pursued his doctoral program in
medicinal chemistry at KU in 1962. Today, Tom does several lecture tours at universities around the
country.
“I liked Ed Smissman from the very start. It was Ed who taught my first class in organic chemistry
and it was he that made organic chemistry such an exciting field. It was easy to discern that he had
that nonabrasive but unique style of teaching and mentoring that most students would be comfortable
with. He instilled in all of us the desire to learn all we could about medicinal chemistry and let no
question go unanswered. It was Ed that secured my first part-time job at Wisconsin in the Pharmacy
department working for Professor Joe Cannon. I knew from that point that KU was where I wanted to
be for graduate studies. Ed was my advisor and he ensured equal opportunity for all and provided oneon-one time that was needed for us graduate students to be all we could be. Ed was very much the
father figure. At one particular MIKI meeting, Ed insisted that I call home where Clair and the wives
of the graduate students had a party for my wife celebrating our wedding anniversary. And when my
wife thanked me for the dozen Roses to simply say thank you; we had so little spending money at the
time, but Ed made sure that the gift was there. He was that kind of a good-hearted person. We would
sometimes go as a group to the University of Kansas Medical Center for lectures in medical science
and on the way home; Ed would often treat us to Mexican dinner. This close knit camaraderie was
virtually unheard of at most other universities of the day, and that’s what made KU so special. While
at KU I also did a minor in organic chemistry with Professor Earl Huyser. It was all a wonderful
experience indeed.
I also owe huge thanks to Professor Matt Mertes for helping me secure a one-year sabbatical at the
University of Louis Pasture in Strasbourg, France, to work in Jean-Marie Lehn’s laboratory; and a
wonderful experience indeed. It was Ed Smissman however, that let the genie out-of-the-bottle in
bridging organic and medicinal chemistry disciplines as a multi faceted and single unit leaning
process. A few years ago while attending a regional pharmacy meeting at KU, I toured the campus,
and it was a haunting experience looking back to my days at KU and saw much of Ed, Matt and Bob
from the laboratory walls of Malott Hall. I thought it was also strange for me not to see any graduate
students working in the labs on the weekend; in my day that would have been unheard of because we
were all expected to be in the lab on the weekends”.
In 1966, Dr. Tom Lemke began an industrial career at Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company, now part of
Pfizer Inc., and later moved on to the University of Houston College of Pharmacy in 1970 to begin a
36 year career in pharmacy education. Tom noted “The inspiration for much of my teaching and
research can be traced back to the wonderful experiences that I had working for and being mentored
by Edward Smissman”. Dr. Lemke retired on 1 September 2006.
31
Professor Howard E. Mossberg, University of Kansas, 1966, Former Vice Chancellor, and School of
Pharmacy Dean Emeritus.
Professor Mossberg achieved his B.S. in Pharmacy, 1954 and his PhD in Pharmacology from the
University of Florida, 1958. In 1958 to 1966 he was Professor and Associate Dean of the Pharmacy
School at Southwestern State University at Weatherford, Okalahoma; he began his professorship at
the University of Kansas in 1966 in the School of Pharmacy.
In 1966 through 1991, Howard Mossberg served intermittently as professor and Dean of the School of
Pharmacy. In 1991 to 1993 he served as Vice Chancellor for Research and Public Service, and Dean
of the Graduate Studies and was reappointed to the Vice Chancellorship in 1996 to 1997. Howard
also served as the director and executive officer for two technology corporations, Interex Research
Corporation, 1972-1981, and Oread Laboratories, Inc, 1984-1995; he retired as Vice Chancellor and
Dean Emeritus in July 1997.
“It was Dr. Joe Burckhalter’s Parke Davis, Inc. connection with new developments in Anti Malaria
drugs that really got the University of Kansas’s department of medicinal chemistry on track with
something huge on the map in new drug discoveries. In 1967, Professor’s Morris Faiman, Takeru
Higuchi and Ed Smissman were tirelessly collaborating to bring new construction of seven new
pharmacology and medicinal chemistry lab buildings to fruition on South Iowa, and Ed Smissman was
responsible for securing the lands needed for the construction through the Endowment Association;
today two of these lab buildings bear the names Smissman and Higuchi. In the early years, KU’s
Professor McCollum of Pharmacology left for the University of Wisconsin and later discovered
vitamins A&D there in the 1920’s; a lab building was later constructed on KU grounds bearing the
name McCollum Laboratories and several researchers from pharmacy and biological sciences
occupied the space. In 1972, the departments of medicinal chemistry and pharmacy all merged as one
lab unit. At the time, Ed Smissman had made his name in Chemical oils and Pesticides and was a gulf
oil division consultant with McNeal laboratories. His involvement with these companies aided nicely
to the broad vision of what the University of Kansas should and can be in future medicinal chemistry
developments, and Ed was always willing to work with anyone who shared his vision. Ed believed in
a strong team collaborative concept, to go the extra mile for a solid product. Joe Burckhalter and Ed
Smissman began the medicinal chemistry vision, and Takeru Higuchi gave it the legs and kept it all
going on a corporate level. Ed had a high regard and unlimited confidence in Takeru Higuchi,
andTakeru’s connection and full backing of the Science Endowment Institution and Dolph Simons Sr.
was a tremendous asset in securing the funding needed for new construction. I had the pleasure of
working with Takeru upfront and personal in connection with Oread Labs Inc. and Interex
Corporation. My corporate affiliation with Higuchi and industry began in 1972 as Vice President and
Board member of Interex, and Vice Chair of Oread Laboratories and hence Higuchi’s passing in 1987,
I was the Chairman till 1995”.
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Professor Patrick Hanna, PhD, 1967, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Kansas,
Student of Professor Matt Mertes
Dr. Pat Hanna is now a professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Minnesota. He
achieved his B.S. in Pharmacy at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, and began his doctoral
education at the University of Kansas in 1963 under the tutorship of professor Matt Mertes. Today the
primary focus of his laboratory research is on the N-acetyltransferases involved in the metabolism of
aromatic amines. These investigations involve the application of many techniques used in chemistry,
protein chemistry, enzymology and molecular biology. N-acetyltransferases play a central role in the
metabolic detoxification and bioactivation of a diverse group of drugs, carcinogens and
environmentally important chemicals. This area of research has diverged somewhat from his doctoral
work with Matt Mertes which emphasized synthetic medicinal chemistry focused on Opiate
analgesics.
“I was completing my B.S. in Pharmacy in early 1963 when my mentor, Professor Tully Speaker at
Creighton University got me interested in medicinal chemistry research. After some deliberation on
my future course for graduate school, I decided to apply to the University of Kansas and within a few
weeks I received an encouraging letter from Dr. Smissman basically selling the idea that KU’s
medicinal chemistry department was the only place for me; I was immediately impressed by Ed’s
warmth of personal invitation and I accepted. When I arrived at KU in the fall of 1963 it was obvious
that Ed and Matt set the tone for student expectations and both gentlemen were in sync on the
principals and ethos of medicinal chemistry’s future objectives. Ed certainly had a profound impact
on the student’s education while Matt was a rather low-key and extremely patient person with ones
cadence of progression. Matt was more interested in the students approach, how you thought the
problem through and what you did right in the process without taking any shortcuts. My experience
with Matt Mertes was personal and easy going and he always took an active interest in your life
outside the lab”.
“While Matt took a sabbatical in the Czech Republic, several of his doctoral students (I being one of
them) had to correspond with him on our lab work progress via the standard mail system. I included a
lot of detail and wrote him very long letters outlining my work and Matt would describe them as
“Pat’s Epistles”. We had an interesting and enjoyable group in our lab in 1963, and Bob Wiley was
just settling in as faculty number three. Two of my student contemporaries were Wendel Nelson, one
or two class years ahead of me, and Norman Dahle, both of whom I had roomed with. Two other
Smissman students Bob Robinson and Loren Hedrich became very good friends.
I began my teaching career at the University of Minnesota in early 1969, and I soon decided to
redirect my research focus to drug metabolism. I applied the principles of medicinal chemistry
research that stemmed from my experience at KU. My research in drug metabolism over the years has
focused specifically on aromatic amine chemicals that are associated with blather cancer. We are
studying the enzymes that metabolize these tobacco smoke chemicals that cause cancer. What I
learned at KU from Matt and Ed on the relationship between chemistry and biology has provided the
foundation for all of my work”.
33
Dr. Bill Gastrock, PhD, 1967, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, former
student of Dr. Ed Smissman.
Dr. Bill Gastrock is a former student of Edward Smissman. He received his B.S. in Chemistry at
Louisiana State University in 1962, and began his Doctoral studies at KU that same year. Bill
Gastrock and Ron Borne, (Borne was a former student of Matt Mertes), met in 1959 at Ochsner
Medical Foundation in New Orleans working on steroid research. Dr. Bruce Gabbard, their laboratory
supervisor at Ochsner labs also achieved his PhD in Chemistry under Ed Smissman at the University
of Wisconsin in 1955, and it was Bruce, who introduced Dr. Smissman’s groundbreaking medicinal
science ethos to both Bill and Ron in the late 1950s, that very much enticed them to pursue their
higher education in medicinal chemistry at KU (Bill in 1962 and Ron in 1963).
In 1967, Bill began his career in industry with American Cyanamid Agricultural Division in
Princeton, New Jersey. He worked in the veterinary product area on the synthesis of new antiparasitic agents before moving into the process development section. In 1983, he took a position with
Vicksburg Chemical Company as process chemist involved in all aspects of their organic production
and custom manufacturing. In 1989, the company transferred all organic efforts to Cedar Chemical
Corp, in West Helena, Arkansas, and Bill became the Research & Development Manager their. The
Cedar Chemical Corp filed for bankruptcy in 2002, at which time Bill Gastrock retired, except for
occasional consulting.
“As I look back through my time in Kansas I can’t help but think of the close KU family and teamstructure that Ed Smissman and Matt Mertes, along with Bob Wiley, Gary Grunewald and Jim
McChesney solidified, by working, studying, eating and playing together. We would have a forth of
July picnic at the Smissman’s home and a Thanksgiving dinner and my job was to make the giblet
gravy for the meal. The same family atmosphere was obvious in research meetings with all students
and faculty participating together. Rarely, would Matt Mertes pass up a poker game with some of the
students, and Matt and I would try to get in a little hunting (pheasant, dove, quail, or duck) whenever
possible. Many of the graduate students would return to the lab after dinner and work till around 10:00
pm at which time, some (usually myself, Ron Borne, Norm Dahle, Bill Albrecht, George Parker and
others) would retire to the Gaslight Tavern for a few beers to unwind before closing time and bedtime.
Ed Smissman ensured that KU medicinal chemist were also good organic chemist and had a firm
biological background. Ed’s collaboration with other departments i.e., chemistry (both organic and
analytical) and biochemistry, provided a great example of his versatility. It was all an awesome
experience and I was glad to be part of it.”
34
Professor Ron Borne, PhD, 1967, University of Kansas, M.S. Organic Chemistry, Tulane University,
New Orleans, B.S. Chemistry, Loyola University, New Orleans.
Dr. Ron Borne is now Professor Emeritus of Medicinal Chemistry at Ole Miss. In the fall of 1967,
Ron began his PhD program at the University of Kansas in medicinal chemistry under the advisement
of Professor Matt Mertes. In 1962, Ron Borne and Bill Gastrock worked together as Laboratory
technicians at Ochmer Research hospital in New Orleans with Ed Smissman’s first Ph.D. student at
Wisconsin in 1955, Bruce Gabbard. ; Bruce was partially hearing and speech impaired who achieved a
remarkable career in medicinal chemistry in his own right. He told Ron and Bill about the Smissman
program and encouraged both to apply. Smissman had just moved to Kansas.
“In the fall of 1963, I was convinced that the place for my graduate education was the University of
Kansas, and I never looked back in regret of that decision. My graduate research at KU under Matt
Mertes was, in my view, the perfect learning environment. Ed and Matt’s open door policy created
the perfect comfort zone to freely asked questions and to openly discuss your ideas on anything they
threw at you. Inevitably, KUs medicinal chemistry program became the mode for many medicinal
chemistry departments across the nation. I began my assistant professorship in academia at the
University of Mississippi in 1968 and from that time we developed a medicinal chemistry program
using the Smissmen/Mertes approach, which became rather successful at Ole Miss. In retrospect, I
have much to be grateful for thanks to Matt and Ed.
We certainly had plenty of laughs as well. In 1966, during the Lawrence city elections, a lab
technician had said to the graduate students that there were no Justice of the Peace or Constable listed
on the voting ballot, so we encouraged those who had not yet voted to write-in Bob Wiley and Matt
Meres on the ballot. Eight of us voted for them and they were both officially elected; Bob Wiley as
City Constable and Matt Mertes as County Justice of the Peace. We were actually pretty scared
because we didn’t know how Matt or Bob would react, but as it turned out they both made the best of
it and put on an Inaugural Ball at the Eldridge Hotel”.
35
Professor Richard Givens, University of Kansas, Department of Chemistry, and a “consulting friend
of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry”.
Professor Richard Givens began professing at the University of Kansas in 1967 and since has
enjoyed a close association with the Department of Medicinal Chemistry.
“In the early days it was typical of Professor Edward Smissman to get acquainted with new faculty in
the Chemistry Department and to encourage collaboration among the faculty in both departments. He
encouraged interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and collaboration in medicinal chemistry or chemistry.
Ed was instrumental in my first attempt to obtain funding from the National Institutes of Health
(NIH). I offered to look over a recently rejected NSF proposal seeking advice on how to improve it.
My projects were at the time centered on new developments of photochemistry expanding on various
ways to use light to create new types of compounds, i.e., as a synthetic reagent. Ed looked at my
proposal, noted that it had merit, but suggested that I reorient it toward the synthesis of compounds
that were more biological in nature and add more objectives with applications in medicinal chemistry.
After incorporating Ed’s suggestions, I submitted the new proposal to NIH as he had suggested and
the proposal was approved. Much to the work that resulted from the NIH support did have medicinal
chemistry applications. In fact, a project in collaboration with Dr. Robert Wiley grew out of our
studies and resulted in our synthesis of desethermuscarine, a compound of interest in Bob’s research
program. We enjoyed the fruits of the collaboration in the form of two papers published in the Journal
of Medicinal Chemistry. It was quite common for Ed to promote such collaboration projects if he
could see a positive impact on research in medicinal chemistry. Not only did my photochemistry
benefit from Ed’s knowledge and encouragement toward medicinal chemistry applications, but also I
consider his influence to be crucial in my professional development.”
36
Mrs. Linda Maggiora, University of Kansas, 1968, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Laboratory
Technician for professors Ed Smissman and Matt Mertes.
Linda Maggiora was born and raised in San Francisco. She achieved her bachelors in chemistry at
the University of California in 1967. Linda, along with her husband, Gerry, moved to Lawrence,
Kansas, in 1968. Linda began working for Ed Smissman half time at the University of Kansas in the
chemistry laboratory; after Ed’s passing, she worked full time for Matt Mertes. The Maggiora’s left
Lawrence, Kansas in 1987 for Up-John Pharmaceuticals in Michigan, later bought by Pfizer Inc. In
1995 they retired to Phoenix, Arizona.
“Gerry and I had just arrived in Lawrence when we had our first child and at the same time had
applied for a part time position at KU in the chemistry lab. Fortunately I was hired and Ed Smissman
was nice enough to allow me a few hours work in the morning so I could mind my child the rest of the
day. My work at KU expanded over 19 years. I was indeed lucky to have had two great bosses like Ed,
and Matt; and may I add that it was Ed Smissman who lobbied, and secured my husband’s first
teaching job as an assistant professor in the chemistry and biochemistry department. I very much
enjoyed the chemistry lab work and the faculty program interaction. It was always exciting to work
with young students just coming in the program. I had the pleasure of working in the incoming
introduction hall to orientate new students, and assign class schedules. It was just fascinating to see
the newbie’s eager to get on with their school work. And, of course, I was also around to cleanup after
student mishaps in the laboratory; and we had a few of those! I recall working in the same lab with
Ron Borchardt, a graduate student of Ed Smissman, and now a professor in the School of Pharmacy at
KU”.
The home parties hosted by Ed and Clare were special, and they made us feel like being part of the big
family. I had a superb working relation with Matt Mertes because the working chemistry, excuse the
pun, was just right, and he was incredibly approachable. Matt also did lots of home entertainment
parties like back yard barbeques and pig roast which were always great fun. Matt was not only a great
family man, raising four children, but he was also a well respected teacher, a kind and gentle person.
Matt was considered a genuine teacher’s teacher, and always ready to provide the right answer to a
medicinal problem”.
37
Dr. Eugene A. Coats, PhD, 1968, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Doctoral
Student of Professor Matt Mertes.
Gene earned his B.S. in Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1963, and his
Ph.D in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Kansas at Lawrence in 1968. His early professional
academic career involved a Postdoctoral fellowship on quantitative structure-activity relationships
with Professor Corwin Hansch, Department of Chemistry, Pomona College at Claremont, California.
Following a 20 year career in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Cincinnati, Gene spent
four years in Germany at the Borstel Research Institute with Dr. Joe Seydel. Upon returning to the
United States, Yvonne Martin, head of Computer-Assisted Molecular Design at Abbott Labs, provided
an extremely valuable one-year experience as a transition towards the industrial medicinal chemistry
environment. Gene has now worked for several biotech companies in southern California over the past
13 years and is currently Principal Scientific Investigator in Research Chemistry for Amylin
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., San Diego, California.
A strong background in medicinal chemistry, thanks to KU, coupled with concepts in computational
chemistry and computer-assisted molecular design have allowed Gene to provide support to chemist
and biologist in the areas of chemical library design, molecular modeling, chemical database
manipulations, and statistical methods applied to the development, understanding, and interpretation
of chemical-biological structure-activity. Gene says, “I feel very lucky to be able to interact at the
interface between multiple disciplines which allows and requires me to make full use of all my
academic training and experience”. Gene is a member of the American Chemical Society, the Division
of Computers in Chemistry, and the International QSAR Society. He has coauthored 69 publications,
abstracts, and patents.
“My time at the University of Kansas was a thrill that began in the summer of 1963 when I was
among about ten graduate students entering the doctoral program in medicinal chemistry. We spent
the first year sharing a huge laboratory in Malott Hall working on quantitative organic chemistry
assignments, getting to know one another, trying to decide on a major professor, and ducking
tornadoes, several of which passed quite close to Lawrence. Our immediate perks however were the
great city of Lawrence, and the easy access to KU football and basketball games; something of which
is a great commodity today. My initial attention was drawn to Professor Matt Mertes’s research on
anticancer drugs and 5-fluorouracil analogs in particular. Matt’s group was trying to make
modifications to enhance the membrane transport of the analogs. I was intrigued with this research
and decided to join Matt’s group. We set out to synthesis a series of carbonate analogs of 5Flurouracil-conating dinucleotides, a process that looked straight forward on paper but unfortunately
turned into a considerable challenge. The program branched out into other analogs as well and took
four more years of trial and error before achieving the design objectives. The low biological design
was depressing, but that was one of the lessons of medicinal chemistry. In my last year, Matt was in
Prague, so I corresponded with him on my research progress. Matt and I had a trusted professorstudent relationship going and he was always there when I needed his council.
“Before applying for admission to KU, I didn’t really know Professor Smissman that well other then
what I had learned from graduate students and professors while I was a chemistry student at the
University of Wisconsin in the early 1960s. During that period, I did some undergraduate work for
Professors Dave Lemal and Joe Cannon, and both had been close colleagues of Ed Smissman. It was
through Joe Cannon that I learned what medicinal chemistry was all about, and Dave Lemal
encouraged me to further my medicinal chemistry education at KU, otherwise I might have gone
elsewhere. Once in Lawrence, I was continually amazed at the care and concern expressed by Ed
Smissman for all the graduate students, regardless of whom they had chosen to work with. For
example, in preparation for my second seminar on the topic: Mechanisms of Antibody Action, I was
asked by Ed to give him a private presentation since he could not be there for the seminar itself. This
was more then just a little scary but I soon found that Ed was both interested in the topic and very
38
supportive of my attempt at organized presentation. Also quite memorable were several Saturday
morning sessions with Ed in which he quizzed and tutored a group of us in organic structure,
reactions, and mechanism. These sessions were both a help and considerable encouragement to work
harder in preparation for our monthly cumulative examinations. Students were required to pass 8
exams over a three year period in order to enter candidacy for our doctorate.
Finally, I should mention that it was the responsibility of Professor Gary Grunewald, who taught
special topics courses like computer assisted drug design, that later pointed me in the direction of my
postdoctoral program and professional career in various aspects of that same field”.
39
Dr. Arthur Ramsey, PhD, 1968, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Student of
Professor Matt Mertes.
Before coming to the University of Kansas in 1963 to pursue a doctorate in medicinal chemistry,
Arthur Ramsey obtained his B.S. in chemistry at the Albany College of Pharmacy at Albany, New
York. In 1968, Dr. Ramsey went direct into industry with the FMC Chemical Corporation in
Middleport, NY, and later transferred to Princeton, NJ. In 1999, he transitioned to the Huntington Life
Sciences laboratory where he retired in 2002.
Arthur says that Ed Smissman was certainly a huge focus in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry
but Matt Mertes was instrumental in the big picture in suggesting the ideal solution to a medicinal
problem. Matt was great in providing the finishing touches and solving the puzzle of medicinal
science; Ed would be the mash potatoes but Matt would provide the right gravy for its palatability.
Matt was a fun guy to be around and very lab and group focused with patience and kindness abound,
Arthur says. In his last year of school when completing his doctorate theses in 1968, Matt Mertes was
on sabbatical in Prague (this was also during the Prague Spring uprising) and he corresponded with
Matt by mail on his thesis work progress; Arthur was working on two separate lab research projects,
radiation protection agents and the stereochemistry of analgesic receptor sites. A great deal of Matt
Mertes’s work involved anti cancer agents and he often harbored a futuristic view on much of the
medicinal chemistry developments going on, he says.
“Ed Smissman, Matt Mertes and Bob Wiley were the ideal professor mix for KU, at the right time, at
the right place, and with the right ideas for where medicinal chemistry should be headed. The Monday
night meetings were very informative and bundled with stimulation and well programmed with a
medicinal science curriculum second to none. The University of Kansas was recommended to me by
my chemistry professor, Dr. Matt Verderame and it just so happens that Smissman and Verderame
were both doctorate students at the University of Wisconsin in 1951”.
40
Solon E. Summerfield Distinguished Professor Ronald Borchardt, PhD, 1970, The University of
Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy
Ron Borchardt was born and raised in Wausau, Wisconsin and attended the University of Wisconsin
at Madison to obtain his BS degree in Pharmacy in 1967. To help pay for his education, Ron worked
for three years in Professor Morris Kupchan’s research laboratory. In the fall of 1966, after intensive
thought about where to pursue his graduate education, Ron decided to pack his Volkswagen Bug and
visit the Medicinal Chemistry Department at the University of Kansas. During this visit to Lawrence
Ron and his wife Pam had the opportunity to meet Ed and Clare Smissman. Ed sold Ron on KU’s
medicinal chemistry graduate program and according to Ron “the rest is history”. What most
impressed Ron was the concern that Ed showed for the personal and professional welfare of his
students and his faculty colleagues. Shortly after entering KU’s graduate program in medicinal
chemistry in 1967, Ron found himself facing an invitation from the military draft board “to join the
army”. Consistent with Ron’s analysis of Ed Smissman’s personality, Ed contacted then Senator
Gaylord Nelson, Democrat from Wisconsin, requesting a draft deferment for Ron who would allow
him to complete his PhD degree at KU. At the same time, Ed also contacted Eve May, a scientists at
the National Institutes of Health (NIH) requesting a commission for Ron in the United States Public
Health Service. Ron was granted this commission in September 1969 at which time he and Pam
relocated to Bethesda, MD. Ron then spent two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow working the Lou
Cohen’s laboratory at the NIH. In 1971, Ron returned to KU as a faculty member in the Department of
Biochemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Typical of Ed Smissman, Ed worked,
tirelessly behind the scenes to help secure this KU faculty position for Ron. Over the next three years
(1971-1974), Ron and Ed developed an even closer personal and professional relationship, which
unfortunately ended in 1974 with Ed’s untimely death.
“Ed Smissman gave me the perfect opportunity to develop my own career and the opportunity to
express my own creativity as a scientist. Ed was truly a teacher’s teacher. He achieved great things in
his career but never at the expense of his students or his faculty colleagues.” Ed’s philosophy was
“people first, always, and good things will follow”. “Ed Smissman was not only a superb mentor but
he was also a father figure. Ed Smissman sized me up early on and set me off on a “preset career path.
To this day, I’m sincerely grateful for his insights about my strengths and weaknesses and the way he
mentored me down this “preset career path”.
Professor Takeru Higuchi, who was a colleague of Ed Smissman’s at the University of Wisconsin in
the late 1950s and early 1960’s, joined the faculty at KU in 1967 as Chairman of the newly created
Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Regents Professor. As an undergraduate at the
University of Wisconsin, Ron never had the opportunity to meet Tak or even take classes from him. It
was not until Ron entered KU’s graduate program that he met Tak Higuchi, the “father of physical
pharmacy”. When Ron returned to KU from the NIH to assume a faculty position at KU, he and Tak
became close professional colleagues and personal friends.
In 1983, when Tak turned sixty-five years, he retired as Chairman of the Department of
Pharmaceutical Chemistry. The University of Kansas then initiated a national and international search
to find Tak’s replacement. Tak’s brother, Bill Higuchi a faculty member at the University of
Michigan, was invited to assume Tak’s Regent Professorship and also the position of Chairman of the
Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. Bill elected to decline KU’s offer.
Shortly there after, Ron received a call from Howard Mossberg, Dean of the School of Pharmacy.
Howard invited Ron to a lunch also attended by Del Shankel, Chairmen of the search committee set
up to find a replacement for Tak. Apparently, the search committee had decided that Ron would be a
good replacement for Tak. Thus, Howard and Del “dropped the bombshell” on Ron over lunch. After
some lengthy thought and hesitation, Ron accepted the offer in August 1983 to become Chairman of
the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, a position that he held for 15 years until 1998. For the
41
first five years in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Ron had to recreate himself as an
educator and researcher making a transition from being biochemist to being a pharmaceutical chemist.
To this day, Ron is very grateful to Tak, who like Ed set Ron off on a “preset career path”. Like Ed,
Tak “guided” Ron down this “preset career path” letting him take KU’s pharmaceutical chemistry
department in some new directions. Tak was always available to advice and support Ron, but he never
“meddled” in the affairs of the department after Ron assumed its leadership.
“From 1983 onward, I’d like to think that I have had some positive impact on research and graduate
education in pharmaceutical chemistry nationally and internationally. Thanks to Ed Smissman and
Tak Higuhci, my mentors, I think developed the skills necessary to help strengthen the quality of the
research and graduate programs in the pharmaceutical sciences at KU”.
42
The Poker Trip to Lincoln Nebraska
Life as a university student or professor just can’t be all work and no play. In the fall of 1970, some
40 professors and graduate students from the medicinal chemistry department embarked on a routine
bus trip to the Midwest Regional meeting of the American Chemical Society at Lincoln, Nebraska.
Among the group was Geoffrey Vaughan, a visiting professor from Melbourne, Australia. The happy
gang of chemist set off on the long 173 mile journey that morning and the love of playing 5-cent poker
to pass the time away was put in motion. Professor Matt Mertes thought ahead to bring along the card
table. Professor Vaughan was amazed at the American variety of poker games played so he was
invited to play. He said the only form of poker played in Australia at that time was 5-card draw and he
was fascinated with all the variations with the dealer picking the game to play. About twelve players
rotated in playing poker throughout the trip. On arrival at Lincoln, Nebraska, they booked into the
Kellogg Center Hotel and while waiting for their room keys one of the students asked the desk clerk if
there was a card room. “Yes, in the basement” replied the clerk. A number of students agreed that the
card game should continue after bags were set in the rooms so the players met in the card room and
two tables of poker got under way. The five-cent poker games never really amounted to anything
more then a few dollars. After about fifteen minutes in the game, several policemen with guns drawn,
locked and loaded busted in the room and yelled “everyone up against the wall and empty your
pockets”! After showing identification and being treated like criminals, miscreants were told by the
head cop told that it was a criminal offence to gamble on state property in Nebraska. Apparently, the
hotel clerk not only showed them where the card room was but called the cops to rat them out. The
twelve alleged lawbreaking card players were placed in the police wagon and hauled off to the police
station and all placed in one cell. One of the students, Richard Swanson had lost his money early on
the bus and was not a participant in the card room but only a spectator, so he wasn’t arrested, but he
was the first to call Chairmen Ed Smissman to tell what had happened. The three professors in the ring
were Matt Mertes, Jim McChesney and Geoffrey Vaughan. They all were allowed the proverbial one
phone call so Matt Mertes called Ed Smissman again to further explain the situation; by this time it
was near mid-night. Professor Smissman immediately called the president of the University of
Nebraska to demand that he secure their release. Ed was a personal friend of the NU’s Chancellor,
who was also a chemist by the way. All the while, Professor Vaughan demanded that he be allowed to
ring the Australian Ambassador in Washington, his request was repeatedly denied. The police were
nice enough to allow Jim McChesney to collect a sweater to shelter the cool weather and who was
also sharing a room with Gary Grunewald. When Jim came back to the room, Gary awoke from his
sleep and asked what was going on. Jim said the cops had busted their poker game and he’d come for
a sweater for the trip to the police station; Gary asked if there was anything he could do and Jim said
no, “Matt and I could manage”.
Of those arrested was Jan Hes, a new student from (then) Czechoslovakia. Only a few years after the
Prague Spring uprising in 1968, Jan made his way to KU where he knew of Matt Mertes who was on
sabbatical in Prague a few years before. There was some legal concern on the potential impact of an
arrest on Jan’s status with the INS folks. Once their release came and left to find their own way back
to the Kellogg Center, Professor Vaughan demanded that the police take them all back to the hotel in
the police wagon, and on the way back he knocked on the cabin window to asked the driver if he had a
deck of cards to play a game of poker; he was then told in bold terms that he had already caused
enough trouble for one day. After retiring to the room and feeling rather disgraced, they all went off to
the conference the next morning and they were the talk of the town. Ed Smissman had delight in
passing out the personal effects to each of the detainees that morning at first coffee break. Geoffrey
Vaughan said that when told the story to his American acquaintances, their only reply was “it could
only happen in Lincoln, Nebraska!
43
Dean and Professor Emeritus Danny Latin, Former Undergraduate Student of Dr. Ed Smissman, PhD,
Medicinal Chemistry, University of Minnesota, 1970.
Professor Danny Latin began his college education at the University of Kansas in August of 1960
with a primary goal of achieving a degree in Pharmacy. During the course of Danny’s first year in the
School of Pharmacy, he heard about Professor Smissman and the course he taught in Organic
Medicinal Agents (OMA). This was the course all Pharmacy students feared because of its level of
difficulty.
“Everyone in the School of Pharmacy knew of Dr. Ed Smissman because he was an imposing and
gentle fellow who had a very personable interest with all his students. Again, my sole interest in
going to college was to get a degree in Pharmacy and go back home and be a traditional pharmacist.
But at the end of my first year in the School of Pharmacy, Dr. Smissman sent a letter to me, as well as
to all the members of my class who were above average academically, asking if we’d be interested in
visiting with him about doing Research in Medicinal Chemistry.
I had heard about this program early on from a good friend of mine, Mr. Herald Gowin, who said that
if we got good grades during our first year in the School of Pharmacy, we would receive a letter of
invitation from Dr. Smissman to do undergraduate research in Medicinal Chemistry. I felt honored
that I was invited to meet Dr. Smissman about participating in undergraduate research and he
extended an offer for me to join the program during the summer of 1963, and I quickly accepted.
The program funded by the National Science Foundation was called the “National Science Foundation
for Undergraduate Research Program”. We were paid a decent stiffen for participation. This was a
popular program and many undergraduate students participated in this program for many years. Dr. Ed
Smissman, Dr. Bob Wiley, and Dr. Matt Mertes were the three medicinal chemistry professors
involved as research advisors for the undergraduate students.
Bob Wiley, Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, was my research advisor. In the course of
this undergraduate research program, I learned a great a great deal of medicinal and organic chemistry
and, especially, laboratory techniques. Furthermore the close interaction with our three professors and
with the medicinal chemistry graduate students developed in us a special camaraderie that inspired us
to lean and get deeply involved with the science of medicinal chemistry. The professional and
personal values and ethics that Ed Smissman, Matt Mertes, and Bob Wiley instilled in the early
pioneering days of medicinal chemistry are still expressed today on an international scope by a
multitude of students who are academic decedents of these three great professors; and extremely
important in shaping the professional philosophies and futures of the students, past and present, who
studied in the department.
44
Professor Bob Hanzlik, 1970, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Kansas.
Before coming to the University of Kansas I obtained my doctorate in Organic Chemistry working
with Professor Eugene van Tamelen at Stanford University. Interestingly, professors Smissman and
van Tamelen had been colleagues at the University of Wisconsin in the late 1950s. In late 1969 I
applied to both the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health seeking a
postdoctoral fellowship that could take me to Europe. My proposal was about using transition metal
complexes to mimic oxygenase enzymes in sterol metabolism. The NSF fellowship, jointly sponsored
by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), came through first and I immediately accepted it.
I then wrote to NIH to withdraw my application (remember there was no fax or email in 1969!), but
the applications had already gone out to reviewers. This was a stroke of good luck because, as I later
learned, one of the reviewers was Ed Smissman.
In 1970, Lois and I headed off to Cambridge, England, where I was to study inorganic chemistry with
Professor Jack Lewis (later Lord Lewis). In January 1970, British postal workers went on a three day
strike, right at the height of job hunting season. With no prospect of finding a job back in the States,
the only thing to do was to take a week off and go skiing in Austria with a group from the lab. Upon
returning, I found a not in my mailbox that said, “If you are interested in a job at Kansas, see Marlin
Harmony in the Physical Chemistry Department”. Marlin was on sabbatical in Cambridge that year,
and Ed had phoned him to enquire about me. Ed had likes my NIH postdoctoral research proposal, and
after talking with Gene van Tamelen, he concluded that I had the right mix of backgrounds in
chemistry and biology for the medicinal chemistry program at KU. For my part, after meeting with
Marlin in Cambridge and talking to Ed by phone (which cost about $3.00 per minute in those days), it
didn’t take long to figure out that Ed had a vision and a plan for building up the department by adding
new dimensions, like bio-inorganic chemistry (which I actually taught for a few years at KU). He had
the necessary personal contacts (from Chancellors to Nobelist), and just enough drive to be out in
front but still personable. I happily agreed to split the cost of an interview trip and visit Lawrence,
Kansas, for a job interview.
My visit to Lawrence confirmed everything Ed and Marlin had said about the friendly environment
and excellent rapport among the science departments and the School of Pharmacy at KU. Ed knew
the benefits of collaboration, and this was reflected in everything he did. He could be remarkably
persuasive without actually talking a lot. Ed was also good at sizing up people and focusing their
talents and abilities, and he always encouraged his students (and junior faculty as well) with fresh
thoughts and new perspectives on science to keep the forward motion going. Ed had an aphorism for
every situation, but he was also a master at dropping stimulating hints that students (me included)
could take off and run with it. He had a knack for subtle remarks at just the right time to ignite things.
Two such hints proved to have a life long influence on my career. One came as I was struggling to get
going with inorganic catalysis by oxygenasemimics in a department whose students mainly wanted to
pursue organic synthesis of drugs. Ed pointed out that drug metabolism involved oxygenases and
might be more “organic”, more “pharmacy” and more fundable; how right he was!
About this time our pharmacology & toxicology department hired George Traiger, who had been a
postdoc in Toxicology with Gabriel Plaa in Montreal, Canada. George and I were both housed in
McCollum laboratories on the west campus and we were also neighbors in town. More importantly, he
was a biologist interested in chemicals, and I was a chemist interested in biology. We struck up a
long-lasting and extremely productive collaboration and became very good friends. Toxicology
proved to be an interesting and very natural complement to my growing involvement with drug
metabolism. My research group and George’s group have interacted strongly for many years through
several shared NIH grants.
Another one of Ed’s famous hints came a bit later, during a discussion about curriculum content. He
happen to mention that the complement system in the blood was pretty interesting. After reading about
45
complement, I worked it into a pharmacy elective course called Chemistry of Disease States that Matt
Mertes and I developed. I was struck by the range of physiological and pathological activities of
complement, and by the fact that no drugs existed to control it. Since the complement system
involved a protease cascade mechanism, and protease were well known mechanistically, this inspired
me to launch an effort combining drug design, organic synthesis and enzymology, all focused on
protease inhibition. The latter, along with drug metabolism and toxicology, have comprised the
majority of my research activities at Kansas.
As a graduate student, I had access to some of the world’s finest facilities for mass spectrometry
through collaboration between Gene van Tamelen and Alma Burlingame (then at UC Berkley). When
I got to KU I found a very nice Atlas CH-5 magnetic mass spec, very ably operated and maintained by
Bob Drake, but this was nothing like I previously had through the Burlingame lab. Ed Smissman
always liked new gadgets, and together with Jim McChesney, managed to purchase a very early
Finnegan GC/MS for the department. It was literally serial number 3, but this early version was just a
little too full of bugs to last. Wanting to have better mass spec facilities, but not wanting to become a
mass spectroscopist, I worked out a deal with Ed Meyen, then associate Dean for Research and
Graduate Studies, to apply for a mass spec through an NIH shared instrumentation grant for, with KU
putting up a position for a Lab Director. This operation is still going strong with Todd Williams, a
staff of three, and about 7 major instruments.
Ed Smissman was able to hire me for KU because of a large Health Science Advancement Award that
he applied for and received from the NIH. Other current KU faculty hired under this award include
Rob weaver, Ron Borchardt and Howard Rytting. That is now more then a generation ago, but what
goes around, comes around. Several years ago, facing the prospect of my research winding down (as
it does when you live on a series of NIH renewals), and with considerable urging of my colleague
Gunda Georg, I applied for and received a large COBRE (Center of Biomedical Research Excellence)
grant from NIH. The purpose of this award is to recruit, support and mentor junior faculty members in
the biomedical sciences at KU, KSU, WSU, and KUMC. The scientific theme for this program,
protein structure and function, provided a rational for setting up X-Ray Crystallography on the KU
campus as a service operation much like the mass spec lab. The generator is here, and the department
now has two bone fide crystallographers, Ernest Schonebrunn and Emily Scott. Recently, with much
help from a talented postdoctoral student named Quig-shan Li, Ernest and I published the first
structure of the catalytic domain of the human cysteine protease chaplain-1, with an inhibitor bound at
the active site. Things are coming around again, like some sort of closure after 36 years in one place.
Or perhaps it is just the beginning of another cycle that will be carried on by the COBRE faculty as
well as my own students in whom I have tried to imbue some of Ed’s values as well as my own. Only
time will tell.
46
Professor Tom Pazdernik, PhD., Medicinal Chemistry, University of Kansas, 1971, former Student of
Edward Smissman:
Dr. Tom Pazdernik began his education at the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and
then completed his pharmacy degree at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis. He went on to the
University of Kansas for a PhD. program in Medicinal Chemistry in 1967 under the tutorship of Dr.
Edward Smissman. In 1971, Professor Pazdernik went on to do his post-doc at the University of
Kansas Medical Center in Pharmacology, under the guidance of Dr. Ed Uyeki; he has been Professing
at the University of Kansas Medical Center since 1973. Dr. Pazdernik was the Associate Dean for
Students from 1985 to 1990 and Acting Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology from 1991 to
1992; today he is the medical center’s senior professor for education in Pharmacology, Toxicology,
and Therapeutics.
“What can I say that hasn’t been already said about Ed Smissman? Ed was just a prince of a guy. He
expected a lot from his students and the student received much in return; he really had a knack of
motivating his students to a point of no return. I gained valuable experience in the area of
pharmacology as well as medicinal chemistry under Smissman that led me to pursue the field later on.
Our weekly meetings of show and tell, I thought, were very exciting allowing us students to prove
what we proclaim to know; the motto was, we either have it, or we don’t but that was the time fix
what we didn’t have right. My wife and I enjoyed many Sunday afternoons with Ed and Clair’s
hospitable company to share coffee and conversation. Ed marveled on the value of international
connections in the field of medicinal chemistry. Dr. Edward Walaszek, Chairman of Pharmacology at
KUMC developed a long collaboration with Ed. Smissman. Jouko Tuomisto came to KUMC in 1968
to work with Ed Walaszek on his PhD. dissertation. His dissertation was on the pharmacology of
compounds synthesized by Tom Pazdernik and several of Ed’s other students. This led to a
connection with Professor Jouko Tuomisto from Helsinki, Finland, who ended up collaborating with
Ed on pharmacology and medicinal chemistry publications. Furthermore, in 1976, I was given the
opportunity to participate in a seven month sabbatical in Helsinki to work with Dr. Tuomisto to further
collaborate on Pharmacology publications. My greatest attribute acquired from Ed was my ability and
experience to teach, something I enjoy doing to this day. For the first ten years at KUMC, I worked in
the area of cellular immunology and hematology. During the past twenty years, I have worked in
neuroscience studying the mechanism and protection against seizures produced by nerve agents; this
work was funded by the Department of Defense.
Today, Dr. Pazdernik’s research focus is on the effects of drugs and chemicals on brain function and
structure using quantitative computer-assisted analysis to study local cerebral glucose utilization and
employing a variety of approaches to understand the role of reactive oxygen species in causing brain
damage.
47
Professor Donald Nerland, PhD, 1974, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry,
former student of Professor Edward Smissman.
Dr. Don Nerland, a former student of Ed Smissman is a pharmacology professor at the University
of Louisville School of Medicine. Professor Nerland doctorate thesis was the last graduate thesis Dr.
Smissman signed before his untimely death in July 1974. Previously, Don obtained his B.S. at the
University of Iowa, School of Pharmacy under the guidance of Professor Joe Cannon who was a close
colleague of Dr. Smissman.
“Ed Smissman was an imposing figure; he was tall, intellectually gifted and spoke with a deep
baritone voice. Then there was his ever present pipe. Saturday mornings, 8:00 AM, was when Dr.
Smissman held lab meetings (show & tell). I can vividly recall several occasions when I woke up late
and ended up hectically running toward Mallott Hall to try and make the meeting on time. Ed had a
great eye for talent. I remember one specific instance in which he brought in a young investigator to
present a seminar. Following the presentation Ed said that you will be hearing a lot more from that
young man. The seminar speaker was Floyd Bloom who would later go on to become the editor of
Science.
Ed had assembled a wonderful team at KU that included Matt Mertes, Bob Wiley, Gary Grunewald,
Jim McChesney, and the newly recruited Bob Hanzlic. In addition to leading his own research group,
Matt Mertes also played a key administrative role in supporting Ed’s agenda for the department and
moving it forward. The KU chemistry department greatly added to the structural learning
environment of medicinal chemistry students. It should be remembered that the early 1970s was a
time of significant unrest on college campuses although it did not effect the medicinal chemistry
department. In a move that seemed incongruous with Ed’s personas he created a position of student
representative to express student concerns at faculty meetings. I fondly remember my years at KU and
look back on them as a period of tremendous personal intellectual growth.”
48
Dr. Peter Wirth, PhD, 1974, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Kansas, Graduate
Student of Dr. Ed Smissman, 1970-1974.
Dr. Peter Wirth is the Scientific Review Administrator for the Research Program Review Branch at
the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
“While attending St. Benedicts College in the late 1960’s, I participated in the summer of 1969 a
research program with two other SBC classmates, Jim Haug and Richard Swanson in the Department
of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Kansas. Vic Warner, a senior graduate student of Dr.
Mossman, was my faculty advisor from whom I heard much of Dr. Smissman’s program in medicinal
chemistry. Big-Ed, as he was called by his colleagues said that he only expected a half days work
from everyone, “what we did with our 12 hours was our business”. Dr. Smissman was very exciting
on class work detail, particularly, with synthetic chemistry developments. He always said that “we
were chemist fist but needed a firm basis in biology and pharmacology as well”. We all enjoyed a
very good relationship with the chemistry department at KU but I am sure they were very envious of
Dr. Smissman’s programs in medicinal chemistry and the quality of graduate students.
Dr. Smissman routinely visited his students working in the laboratory at nights to assist and answer
questions. Puffing on his pipe, it was a wonder he never set Marlott Hall on fire when he bent over
and asked which solvent, either or ethanol, we were using for our recyrstallizations. He was not only
interested in what was happening scientifically with our research but also how things were going with
our lives outside of the lab. Edward Smissman was more then a teacher and mentor to me; he was a
father figure with constant words of encouragement. Persistent student-faculty involvement in
brainstorming new research and development of ideas were the building blocks of his program. Dr.
Smissman had three “show and tell” group research meetings that were scheduled weekly: Friday
afternoon (1-3PM); Friday afternoon (3-5PM) and Saturday morning (8-10AM). Senior grad students
got the best session (1-3PM), 1st year students (3-5PM) and mid term students the least desirable
Saturday morning session. Once a month, we had a joint session of all three groups at Dr. Smissman’s
futuristic “hyperbolic-parabolic shaped” house on Thursday evenings, where he and Clare would
provide the beer and snacks. Ed saw the future in new developments of dry design in organic
synthesis, amino acids, natural products and the study of insects. He always had a keen knack for
anticipating new and exciting areas of future research and pushing his grad-students in the right
direction. Ed Smissman was instrumental in the MIKI meeting consortium still in effect today; these
meeting present students the opportunity to present their casework and show and tell weekly lab
reports and results for open forum discussion.
The summer picnics at the Smissman’s house, the Thanksgiving dinner for students and their families,
the summer softball league, and the beer and hotdog roasts at Lone Star Lake made my four year stay
at KU seem like yesterday and were some of the best times of my life”.
49
Professor Rodney Johnson, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, 1976, Student
of Professors Ed Smissman and Gary Grunewald.
Dr. Rodney Johnson is a Professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of
Minnesota. Rodney achieved his B.S. in pharmacy at the University of Minnesota in 1972, and began
his PhD program that same year at the University of Kansas under the guidance of Distinguished
Professor Edward Smissman. His decision to attend the Ph.D. program at KU was greatly influenced
by the personal letter that he received from Professor Smissman, a letter that Professor Smissman
probably sent to all recruits, that detailed the Department’s graduate program and opportunities and
that provided a very personal touch.
“I knew right away that I had made the right choice in making the University of Kansas the place
to do my doctoral degree. I remember as an incoming student being placed in the large 4th floor lab
that someone had labeled as Pandora’s Box. Professor Mertes would always walk through the lab on
his way to get coffee. I remember one time I had set up a rather large admiration reaction of an amino
acid that was taking a very long time to run to completion. Matt’s curiosity upon seeing this clear
liquid being stirred daily for days on end finally got the best of him as he finally stopped one day and
asked if I really had anything going on in the flask.”
I admired Ed’s style of mentoring. Although he always knew what you were doing, he did not
micromanage. He let you stand on your own two feet to explore and work the problem at hand. I also
appreciated his giving me the opportunity to participate in the Intersearch Program between the
University of Kansas College of Pharmacy and the Victorian College of Pharmacy in Melbourne,
Australia. The monthly group research meetings on Thursday evening were special because after the
research discussions we always had an informal get-together with Ed and Clare over a dessert that
they had prepared for us. The Monday night all-departmental research meetings were also interesting.
I remember one particular Monday night meeting where we had a lengthy discussion on how to
discard an old bottle of diisopropyl ether that had been found with crystals present of the potentially
explosive peroxide when the chemical storage area outside the 5th floor lab was cleaned up and
organized. Someone suggested we throw the bottle out into the Malott Hall parking lot on a weekend
when it was not filled with cars. Ultimately, it was placed in a barrel with a lot of bedding material
and taken it all out to Jim McChesney’s farm where it was blown up. I remember Don Nerland being
one of the volunteers to do this.
“I was in Melbourne, Australia participating in the Intersearch Program between the University of
Kansas College of Pharmacy and the Victorian College of Pharmacy when Ed died in July 1974. Bob
Wiley also was on sabbatical at the College at this time. He was a good mentor and a good friend
during the year we were there together. I returned to the University of Kansas in 1975 to finish my
PhD thesis under the guidance of Gary Grunewald as my research advisor”.
50
Professor Wayne Brouillette, PhD. 1977, University of Kansas, Student of Professor’s Ed Smissman
and Gary Grunewald:
Dr. Wayne Brouillette received his B.S.degree in chemistry at the university of West Florida, 1972.
He then pursued his graduate studies under Distinguished Professor Edward E. Smissman, and Dr.
Gary Gunewald, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Kansas; and was awarded his
doctorate in 1977. Dr. Brouillette also pursued his postdoctoral appointment at KU under Gary
Grunewald, 1977-78. He began his first teaching position at Pensacola Junior College at Pensacola,
Florida, Department of Chemistry where he taught organic chemistry for one year, and then joined the
Chemistry faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he is now a Professor
conducting research in medicinal chemistry.
“My wife Christie and I both applied for a Doctorate program at KU in 1971. We felt rather
inadequate at first because we weren’t sure we had the right stuff for that level of Chemistry
education; we knew that Ed Smissman had high expectations for the department and all who
associated with it. However, to our surprise, we both scored in the top ten percent on the entrance
exams. Many new students felt uneasy and weary and we wondered how we’d measure up with Dr.
Smissman’s expectations. But soon we’d learn how easy and approachable he really was. Ed
Smissman was a master to learn from, he knew the right information, at the right time and in the right
quantities to deliver to his students. While it was clear his expectations for students high, the
sentiment he instilled was that all students in the department were qualified and showed promise to be
successful chemists, or they would not have been admitted into the program. You only need to listen,
learn, discern, and perform. I adapted and quickly grew into Ed’s style of mentoring. Hence the
passing of Ed Smissman in 1974, I continued my doctorate theses research in the design and syntheses
of anticonvulsant drugs under Gary Grunewald. Such Drugs are used for Epilepsy and at that time
came with severe side effects. Our goal in anticonvulsant research was to minimize the side effects by
investigating the stereochemistry of newly designed compounds, although the targets involved many
synthetic challenges. Several prior post-doctoral students had attempted this research but with little or
no success. The training in this area enabled me after leaving KU to develop the first successful
synthesis of the compounds envisioned by Ed Smissman, named in the literature “Smissmanones”,
after Ed. Gary Grunewald’s guidance while at KU was extremely important for this eventual success.
Gary was, in fact, the shadow image of Ed Smissman in demonstrating excellence by example and
maintaining the core values to which the department was accustomed. We all valued each other as one
family of teachers and learners. The cohesive team effort from faculty and students, managed up and
down, bred loyalty, vertically and horizontally; an environment rare at most universities. I consider
my Ph.D. program to be the product of two brilliant chemists, that being Ed Smissman and Gary
Grunewald, and once a KU student always a KU student because we kept the synergy of learning
going. Post graduation, we became part of that special collegial team of KU scientist that stayed in
touch over the years to consult, talk new science, or simply retro to the good ole days at the University
of Kansas.
51
Professor Christie Brouillette, PhD. 1979, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Kansas,
former student of Professor Matt Mertes.
Dr. Christie Brouillette is a research Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Associate
Director, Molecular Biophysics in the Center for Biophysical Sciences and Engineering at the
University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her research is supported by grants from NIH, NASA, and
Pharmaceutical Industry.
“My graduate career at the University of Kansas shaped, in the most fundamental way, how I
approach scientific questions and what interest me, even today. My husband, Wayne, and I were very
fortunate because even as undergraduates, we had a mentor who were sincerely interested in our
future and that’s where the story begins for us. We both attended the University of West Florida and
graduated with bachelor degrees in Chemistry in 1972. We were both interested in research that had
medicinal relevance and in the summer of 1971, prior to our graduation at West Florida, our Organic
Chemistry Professor, Dr. Clifford Chang, urged us both to apply to programs accepting
undergraduates for summer research. We decided to explore the areas of Medicinal Chemistry and
Biochemistry for potential career study. I chose the University of Mississippi for Medicinal Chemistry
and Wayne chose the University of Florida at Gainesville for Biochemistry; we were exposed to
brochures on the respective departments and those became the bases for our respective choices.
I applied for UM’s program study under Dr. Tom Riley, the outcome of which, by the way, resulted
in my very first publication. At the end of the summer, I arranged a meeting with Professor Ron
Borne, who was chairman of the Medicinal Chemistry department and who had studied under Dr.
Edward Smissman (I didn’t know this at the time), to discuss my desire to pursue a doctorate in
Medicinal Chemistry. Just minutes into our conversation, Ron says, “you know, we’d love to have you
here at “Old-Miss”, but I’d personally recommend the University of Kansas. KU really has the best
Medicinal Chemistry program going in the country”. Upon returning in the fall of 1971, Wayne and I
discussed the idea of pursuing our higher education at KU with our Chemistry department Chairmen,
Professor Ralph Birdwhistle at the University of West Florida. UWF was a rather new school then,
and Birdwhistle had founded the Department of Chemistry. He was a physical chemist and the
students really enjoyed his teaching style; it was inspiring and even mesmerizing such that you often
didn’t even notice that you really didn’t understand what he was talking about! Seriously, Wayne and
I did very well in his class. Upon our decision to attend the University of Kansas in 1972, Professor
Birdwhistle had personally called Ed Smissman to recommend us for the program. Ed later said that
he was highly impressed that another department chairman would take the time to call on his students’
behalf. But Wayne and I did feel inadequate for the challenge at KU, coming in from a small school
community, we just didn’t know what to expect. We were however, delighted to have passed the
qualifying exam in Organic Chemistry; there were three Med Chem. graduate students who took the
test and we all passed in the top ten percent.
A single female student of Med Chem. faculty, Dr. Jim McChesney had just graduated and I was then
coming in the program as the only female graduate student. And, as the only female student in the
group, and looking back at it now, I guess I was a little out spoken sometimes, and don’t think the
faculty always knew how to deal with that or my unique status in the department. I have several
humorous memories but I’ll tell only one that exemplifies Ed Smissman’s open door policy. Looking
back on the situation, I’m surprised I went straight to him with this question, but that’s what I did.
The department had decided, for whatever reason, that I should not have to fill and haul the heavy
Dry-ice bins that we all used on an almost daily bases. I wasn’t at all comfortable with this kind of
special treatment, and decided to take advantage of Dr. Smissman’s open door policy and arrange a
meeting with him on the matter. Since I had asked for an appointment with the Department Chair, I
think Ed immediately assumed that this was a serious issue and anticipated that I was coming in to tell
him I wanted to drop out of grad school. To me, this was a big surprise and I immediately reassured
him that this wasn’t the case. My issue was with the special treatment of not having to fill and haul the
52
ice-bins. I prefer to do this task myself, I said. Ed’s respond was, “that would be fine, if that’s what
you wish. I thought it was something more serious”. One of the requirements for the Medicinal
Chemistry degree was the presentation of three special topic seminars. The Med Chem. faculty took
turns selecting the topics and Bob Hanzlic assigned me the topic of Membrane Receptors. I mentioned
this to him years later and of course I didn’t expect him to remember, but I wanted him to know that it
was the topic of discussion that inspired me to pursue the research I selected in my postdoctoral
studies and ultimately it is what led to the area that I work in today, that of protein structure and
folding. At the time it was significant break from my training as a synthetic medicinal chemist, but
now this area of research has allowed me to come full circle back into the arena of medicinal
chemistry research and drug discovery, and I have no regrets whatsoever”.
53
Professor Dale Boger, 1979, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Former
Faculty.
Dr. Dale Boger is the Richard and Alice Cramer Chair of Chemistry in the department of
Chemistry and the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at the Scripps Institute, La Jolla, California.
Upon completion of his doctoral program at Harvard University he became a faculty member in the
Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Kansas, 1979 to 1985. Dale then moved to
the Department of Chemistry at Perdue University. In 1991, he joined the faculty in the newly formed
Department of Chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute and remains there today. Professor Dale
Boger is the Editor of the Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters and has accomplished over 450
publications on various aspects of Chemistry to date.
“While at the University of Kansas in the early 1970s majoring in Chemistry, the National Science
Foundation (NSF) provided special funding at KU for chemistry undergraduates to participate in
bimolecular research under the guidance of the Medicinal Chemistry Department and with the
direction of my chemistry advisor, Dr. Albert Burgstahler. During that period, I had become
acquainted with Ed Smissman’s vision of multi-departmental and multi-disciplinary collaboration.
Ed’s broad vision of medicinal chemistry theory and application was futuristic and unparalleled at the
time. As a fresh assistant professor at KU and just out of school, I practiced these same principles. Les
Mitscher, the department chair at the time was extremely successful in carriying the program forward
emphasizing the understanding of organic and medicinal chemistry, and the importance of how one
discipline influences on the other”. Professor’s Ed Smissman, Bob Wiley, and Matt Mertes strongly
believed in emphasizing the basic fundamental principals of organic chemistry as a foundation to the
process of drug design and development. Ed was responsible for creating this underlying philosophy
in the Department that is central to the field today. The main focus on our work was on two
fundamental questions; why make the molecule, and what can we do with it medicinally. In medicinal
chemistry using the Smisssman model, we apply fundamental chemical principals in making the
molecule and to understanding its biological activity with the goal of relating the structure of a
molecule to its biological properties. I learned a great deal about drug design and discovery during
my time at KU that essentially all faculty today use across the university spectrum.”
“Matt Mertes was the kindred spirit of the program and ensured students settled into the program; he
was also the driver behind the department’s modern infrastructure and kept it state of the art. Gary
Grunewalt was the master of the department’s organization and direction. Les Mitscher was the grand
gatekeeper that kept it all moving in sync and he was especially good at encouraging students to move
onto higher levels of learning and accomplishment. Bob Hanzlik was and continues to be responsible
for perpetual new program innovations. With the help of an NIH career development award in 1981, I
was able to hire Gunde Georg to offset my teaching responsibilities. Jeff Aube replaced me in 1985”.
The Department’s philosophy was “anyone’s success was everyone’s success”. It was and is a core
concept that nurtures a team spirit. An unforgettable experience for me, and who knows, I just may
return to KU one day”.
54
Dr. Daniel Flynn, PhD, 1981, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Student of
Professor Les Mitcher.
Dr. Dan Flynn is President and CEO of Deciphera Pharmaceuticals in Lawrence, Kansas. He
obtained his PhD in medicinal chemistry from the University of Kansas in 1981. Upon completion of
his doctoral studies at KU, he went to Indiana University where he completed postdoctoral work in
synthetic organic chemistry under Professor Paul Grieco before embarking in the Pharmaceutical
industry. Today, Dan is adjunct professor of the Medicinal Chemistry Department at the University of
Kansas, and has also recently served as the national Chair of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry of
the American Chemical Society.
Dan Flynn began his scholastic journey of higher education at Kansas State University in 1972
and after completing his sophomore year, he transferred to the University of Kansas where he received
a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy, class of 1977. He came to KU with a goal of becoming a
“Kansas plains” pharmacist but all that changed in 1976 when Dr. Gary Grunewald approached him to
offer a position in his group as an undergraduate research assistant. Gary took interest in pharmacy
students, and was always keen to provide opportunities to students to broaden their horizons and
explore alternatives during their education at KU. Dan agreed and found the research environment in
the KU medicinal chemistry department to be stimulating and challenging.
“After graduating from pharmacy school and a little encouragement from KU faculty, I decided to
remain at KU for graduate school to pursue a doctoral in medicinal chemistry under the advisorship of
Professor Lester Mitcher. While going through graduate school, my wife, Brenda, was teaching full
time at Williamstown, Kansas, and needless to say the intense schooling and starting a family
simultaneously (they had their daughter Emily while Dan was in graduate school) was indeed a
challenge. The research under Les Mitcher was intense and incredibly interesting. The involved
diverse projects ranging from total synthesis of 11-deoxydaunomycin, anti cancer drug, and structure
activity relationships of novel inhibitors of bacterial DNA gyrase (at the time this particular research
development was coming into its own revelation), and a synthetic methodology project. Les had a
litany of interesting and stimulating projects going on and he had a grand way of blending chemistry
and biology to better solve the medicinal problems at hand and also to answer questions of biological
significance. He usually thought it appropriate to include a natural (plant) products project for his
graduate students, usually related to discovering natural antibiotics. I wasn’t really enthusiastic in
doing plant research, but decided to give it a try. I remember the summer of 1979 when I participated
in a field trip to New Mexico with graduate school comrades and a KU professor of Botany. While in
the field, the botanist told me to go pick leaves off a chosen tree he thought would be interesting. I did
so (I thought), and when I returned with a burlap bag filled with leaves & vines, he told me that I had
picked poison ivy that had grown around the base of the tree, but not its leaves. I was probably indeed
a challenge for him during the whole plant picking expedition. In the end, Les was kind hearted
enough to let minimize my contact with plants.
The collegial friendships with Gary, Les, and virtually with all the Marlott Hall profs remain in tack
today. Dr. Dale Boger was a great addition to the mix and he was hired back to Kansas after
completing his PhD at Harvard with Professor E.J. Corey. Dale was quite the contagious fellow with a
warm persona and an abundance of medicinal chemistry knowledge, and we graduate students would
often gravitate around him for student advice.
Dan Flynn also reflected the mood of the department when he arrived at KU in 1974 just after Ed
Smissman’s death. When he began at the University of Kansas in the late summer of 1974, it was
only a few weeks after Ed’s passing and the entire class was made aware of his groundbreaking
advancements in medicinal chemistry. Needless to say, the department was hit hard. However, Matt
Mertes, Les Mitscher and Gary Grunewald and their colleagues smoothly transitioned the department
and succeeded in taking the torch and moving the department into a very productive post-Smissman
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era that Ed would have been proud of. Dan indicated that the relationships with students and faculty
stood the test of time over the intervening years. One particular activity that he is particularly pleased
with is the formation of the Medicinal & Bioorganic Chemistry Foundation, which sponsors biennial
conferences in medicinal and bioorganic chemistry at Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Dan worked
closely with Mike Rafferty (class of 1982 with Gary Grunewald), Gary Grunewald and Les Mitcher to
initiate this foundation. This foundation has held these winter conferences in Steamboat Springs since
1995, and it is now regarded as one of the premier conference series in medicinal chemistry.
“I often remembered quite fondly my graduate school days at KU, the students, and the vibrant
faculty. Other faculty members have joined since my departure from graduate school and I am
equally committed to maintaining friendships with them. Perhaps the KU ties and long standing
support are a big part of the reason for returning to Lawrence to establish my biopharmaceutical
company. I feel very much at home here”.
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Dr. John Cashman, PhD, 1982, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Former
Student of Professor Bob Hanzlic.
Dr. John R. Cashman is the director and founder of Human BioMolecular Research Institute
(HBRI) located in San Diego, California. He founded HBRI in 1997 as a non-profit research institute
dedicated to performing fundamental and applied research to address important human diseases of the
central nervous system. Previously, he was a senior scientist at the Seattle Biomedical Research
Institute, and prior to that he was an Associate Director for the IGEN Research Institute in Seattle
Washington. In 1984, John was appointed Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical
Chemistry Department at the University of California, San Francisco. Prior to 1984, he completed a
postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemistry at Harvard University under the direction of
Professor E.J Corey. John received his Masters and Doctorate degrees in Medicinal Chemistry at the
University of Kansas at Lawrence in 1982. In 1977, he achieved his bachelor degrees in chemistry and
biology at the College of Creative Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Dr. Cashman is author of over 150 research articles and twelve patents in the area of drug discovery
and evaluation, and, recently, he was recognized as a fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS). As an example of some recent research he published in
collaboration with faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles (Proc. Nat’l Acad Sci USA
July, 2007, see press release at www.HBRI.org) the report describes a combination of chemistry, cell
biology and immunology. The paper reported on the isolation of a chemical in curry that may help the
immune system clear plaques found in Alzheimer’s disease; the study also identified key genes
involved in the process.
“While doing my undergraduate work at U.C.S.B., I had the great privilege of working with Professor
Tom Bruice and his wife Paula Yurkanis Bruice. At the time Professor Bruice was consulting with
Professor Takeru Higuchi, and he was well aware of KUs esteemed reputation in the medicinal
chemistry department. Tom had strongly recommended that I pursue my doctorate in medicinal
chemistry at KU and I agreed. I began my studies at KU on a miserably hot day in August 1977. I was
assigned to Professor Bob Hanzlic’s group in the medicinal chemistry department and right away I
saw the right parity in Bob’s chemistry and decided to remain in his group. What made that
environment more interesting was that Bob was collaborating with Dr. George Traiger in the
Department of Pharmacology on the “Toxicology of Organo Sulfur-containing Compounds”, and I
was particularly interested in this integrated science approach.
The combined research project of which I was involved was on bio-chemical toxicology and
metabolism of organic sulfur compounds, more specifically to identify the relationship between
toxicology and physical organic properties. In Theory the process was to view the chemicals as
working in the animal similar to that in the test tube and see how, it at all, that information
interrelated. I also did synthetic chemistry in making various derivatives of the compounds and
examined how the biology responded. These types of chemical toxicology studies are important to
understand the fundamental biochemistry behind metabolism and toxic consequences of metabolism.
I met a lot of great folks along the KU path and indeed it was all a wonderful experience”.
57
Dr. Mike F. Rafferty, PhD, 1982, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Kansas,
Student of Professor Gary Grunewald.
Mike Rafferty pursued his B.S. in Chemistry at Kansas State University in 1972; he later went on to
the University of Kansas to achieve his PhD. in medicinal chemistry in 1977 under the direction of Dr.
Gary Grunewald. Mike is currently a consultant for both large and small pharmaceutical companies.
Before returning to Lawrence, Kansas in 2005, Dr. Rafferty was the Executive Director of Discovery
Technologies for Pfizer (formally Parke Davis & Co.) Research & Development at Ann Arbor,
Michigan. Mike also serves as Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Medicinal Chemistry,
University of Kansas.
“When I left Kansas State University in 1972, I couldn’t find a job in chemistry so I bounced around a
bit, finally end up with a business forms printing company in Olathe for a couple of years. In 1974 I
took my first real job in sciences as a protein chemist with Professor Joe Kimmel at the University of
Kansas Medical Center, isolating and purifying peptides from pancreas. Dr. Kimmel was a great
mentor and advisor for me, and soon began encouraging me to consider graduate school. I eventually
took his advice, but I am sure that he must have been disappointed when I expressed an interest in
pursuing a PhD. in organic chemistry rather than in his chosen field of biochemistry. Nonetheless, Dr.
Kimmel never challenged my decision and instead introduced me to Dr. Joan Grunewald, who was a
fellow professor in the same department at that time. Joan arranged for me to visit Lawrence and meet
the faculty in the chemistry department and also in medicinal chemistry, including my first meeting
with Gary. I had a slight problem in that I had never taken the GREs, so my application to the med
chem. program was made somewhat contingent on my score on the ACS organic qualifier that all
incoming students were required to take the first week of school. Since it had been about 5 years
since I had seriously thought about organic chemistry, I bought a copy of March’s Advanced Organic
Chemistry text and read it cover to cover over the summer of 1977 and in early fall, I took the test and
scored well enough that I made the cut, so to speak, along with 11 other first year students. My
classmates included Dan Flynn, John Cashman, Bob Tullman, Theresa Rothauser, Panos Kalaritis,
Larry Butler, Stewart Thompson, and Sherrell Early.
I quickly decided for various reasons to stick with Gary for my Ph.D. and joined the PNMT project,
which focused on the design of selective inhibitors of norepinephrine N- Methyltransferase. My
project involved the design of phenylethylamine analogs with the objective to fully characterize the
structure-activity relationships (SAR) for the aromatic binding domain of the enzyme active site. I
learned the PNMT assay in Ron Borchardt’s lab and had the good fortune to get to know some terrific
people while testing my own compounds over in his lab.
I remember a lot of terrific people in addition to the faculty who in their own ways taught us all so
much. Linda Maggiora, who worked for Matt Mertes for ten years as his senior full time chemist, was
the de facto den mother of the first year students “bullpen” labs and generally kept us from blowing
ourselves up. Her husband Gerry was a professor of biochemistry and one of the many terrific
teachers that we had in our first two years of coursework. One of my most memorable characters
from those days was George Clark, who may have set the record for longevity as a postdoc in the
department. George was a 1950s throwback who raced Chevy Corvairs and had about a dozen or so
cats. George wand I shared a lab with opposing benches and he was the undisputed master tinkerer
who knew how to operate every piece of equipment. He also had a monster collection of Sci-Fi
paperbacks in a big plastic bag next to his desk, and he seemed to reading all of them at the same time
at random.
During my third year of grad school the department hired Dale Boger fresh out of Corey’s lab as a
junior faculty. Mike Pleiss, who was a year or so ahead of me with Gary, and I happened to be
already well established in the lab that would eventually become Dale’s first space. Dale’s first two
students that year were Jim Panek and Mike Mullican. It was a great time for me personally and
58
rather amazing to watch Dale develop into the superstar status that he has so justly earned. Jim has
gone on to a terrific career at Boston University, and Mike has had a very productive career at Vertex.
I had the privilege of working with many other students and postdocs who went on to very successful
careers, including Wayne & Christie Broulliette, Rick Westkemper, Bill Vincek, Brian Hutson, John
Swayze, Tom Reitz, Gene Gracey, Jim Monn, Mona Patel, Jenny Tan, Anabella Villalobos, George
Chang, Dan Sall, on and on.
My time in grad school will always be one of the most enjoyable periods in my life, both socially and
academically. Gary threw a good party, in fact a lot of good parties, and the group was together often
for practically any occasion. I remember the beer tasting parties which were invariably embarrassing
to those of us who considered ourselves possessed of fairly refined palates, and the annual Castle Tea
Room dinners were well lubricated with cases of champagne and various other beverages. This same
work hard, play hard attitude was shared by the med chem faculty in general, and we all had great fun.
Since I’m obsessing over social occasions, I can’t possibly leave this topic without recounting the
afternoon cookout party that Panos Kalaritis, Sherrill Early, and John Swayze threw for the
department on the occasion of their graduations. The centerpiece of the event involved an unfortunate
goat and sheep, who had been purchased in auction and butchered in a Lawrence city park after dark.
On the day of the party they dug a trench in the middle of another city park and built a huge fire to
spit-roast these carcasses. I do recall some public works employee asking us about bag containing a
goat’s head which he had pulled out of a trash can a couple of days before over at that other park and
whether there was a connection. Just imagine how much jail time would be involved if someone were
to try to repeat all this today.
My time at KU really did prepare me in unique ways for the career that I eventually chose in big
pharmacy. After my postdoc with Kenner Rice at the NIH (I was the first of several Grunewald
students to work with Kenner), I went first to Parke-Davis, then to Bristol-Myers, then Searle, then
back to Parke-Davis, and finally Pfizer. I found throughout my career in research that the depth and
breadth of the academic training I received at KU med chem gave me a competitive advantage over
the synthetic hot shots who new how to build molecules but didn’t have the first clue as to how to
design them. My friendship with reliance on Gary and Kenner persists to this day- something that I
view as quite special and unique. “
59
Professor Gunda Georg, PhD, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Kansas,
In 1984, Professor Dale Boger hired Dr. Gunda Georg as a research assistant professor in the
Department of Medicinal Chemistry, and School of Pharmacy. One year later, she was hired as a
tenure track faculty member. She has served as the director for the Center for Drug Discovery at the
Higuchi Biosciences Center and as director of the Kansas Masonic Center Research Institute’s
Experimental Therapeutics Program. In her 23 years at KU Professor Georg carried out fundamental
studies in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. She is in the top five percent of researchers
receiving funding through the National Institutes of Health in the last 25 years. She has led several
multi-investigator grants at KU that were obtained from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Georg’s
research is focused on the medicinal chemistry of agents useful in infectious diseases, cancer, male
contraception, and Alzheimer’s disease. She is perhaps best know for her studies of the anticancer
agent paclitaxel that she carried out together with Professor Richard Himes, from the Department of
Molecular Biosciences and others at KU. She is a co-inventor together with Professor Valentino Stella
from KU’s Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry of the anesthetic Aquavan® for colonoscopy that
as of 2007 is in phase three clinical trials by MGI Pharma based in Minnesota. She also is a coinventor together with Professor Joseph Tash from the KU Medical Center of the male contraceptive
agent GamendazolTM that is currently undergoing preclinical evaluation. In collaboration with
Professor Mary-Lou Michaelis from the KU Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology novel
agents for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease were discovered that are currently being studied in
animal models of Alzheimer’s disease.
While at KU Professor Georg trained 120 undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs in her
laboratories. The research results obtained at KU by the Georg group were communicated in over 400
publications and public presentations.
One of her important achievements is the creation of a Kansas statewide NIH Center of Biomedical
Research Excellence (COBRE), the Center for Cancer Experimental Therapeutics. This Center was
created to augment and strengthen biomedical research capacity and develop a multidisciplinary
research center with a thematic science focus. The co-anchor of COBRE Centers is the NIH
Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN) that seeks to help attract talented biomedical and
behavioral investigators to Kansas universities and to foster creative ways to use and develop the
research skills of talented investigators and graduate students.
Georg states: “My ultimate goal with COBRE was to create a state-wide infrastructure to provide
faculty and students with the additional resources for drug discovery research. As the COBRE Center
for Cancer Experimental Therapeutics principal investigator, I thought it imperative to promote and
mentor junior investigators to succeed and to build core laboratories to enhance research
opportunities.”
In January 2007, Professor Gunda Georg departed from KU for the University of Minnesota to
become Professor and Head of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry. She holds the Robert Vince
Endowed Chair and a McKnight Presidential Chair and is the founding Director of the Institute for
Therapeutics Discovery and Development.
60
Dr. Mike Mullican, PhD, 1984, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Doctoral
Student of Professor Dale Boger.
Mike Mullican is a Senior Searcher for Science IP, Chemical Abstract Services at Menifee,
Arkansas. He provides valuable information and technical analysis to assist scientists, business
personnel, investors and intellectual property professionals in making intelligent decisions for drug
research and discovery industry.
He achieved his B.A. (cum laude) in chemistry at Benedictine College, Atchison, Kansas in 1979. In
the same year he went on to pursue his doctoral in medicinal chemistry at the University of Kansas
under the tutorship of Dr. Dale Boger; he graduated with honors in 1984. In the summer of 1978 he
did an undergrad research program in medicinal chemistry under Professor Gary Grunewald at which
time he was inspired to pursue a professional journey in medicinal chemistry. After KU, Mike’s first
industry experience was at Parke Davis, Inc, 1984 to 1991 where his research focus was in antiinflammatory medication that involved making cromolyn compounds and oral anti allergy and asthma
medications. Mike’s research involved making dual inhibitors of cyclaoxygenase-S-Lipoxygenase,
anti-inflammatory agents that all went to clinical trial.
While at KU his doctoral research was in New Aromatic Annulations Methods; this process involved
the total synthesis of juncusol, sendaverine and morphine – related analgesics. Dr. Mullican was the
recipient of the Dorothy Haglund prize and this was the University of Kansas’s highest recognition for
a doctoral dissertation. He was also the Irsay-Dahle memorial award recipient for outstanding senior
graduate student in medicinal chemistry, 1983.
“I am quite fortunate to have been afforded the opportunity to attend the University of Kansas in
pursuit of my PhD in medicinal chemistry. I was lucky to have first rate Excalibur faculty who were
very concerned with student progression and very approachable in all matters of concern. I was
especially fortunate to have had the financial support available for my medicinal chemistry research
work involving groundbreaking synthesis of the time.
My particular research was in aromatic annulations-method that applied to natural products synthesis,
and Dale Boger had some incredible forward thinking ideas on the association of synthetic organic
chemistry and natural products in nature, namely with juncusol. I indeed had a wonderful experience
with the Boger group and benefited greatly working with Dale on the details of my research projects.
In fact, Dale would often have the results outlined before the project was completed.
In the extracurricular, I enjoyed the MIKI meetings in sharing vital chemistry information among
professors and fellow student contemporaries, and Matt Mertes would always have a portable card
table on the ready for us to play cards on the bus. I also enjoyed the racket ball games that Dale Boger
organized. He was a tough player.
61
Professor James S. Panek, 1984, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Kansas, Student
of Dr. Dale Boger.
Dr. Jim Panek is the Samour faculty professor of chemistry, and a professor of organic and
medicinal chemistry at Boston University. His primary group focus is on Asymmetric synthesis,
catalytic asymmetric reaction processes and the synthesis and evaluation of novel antifungal and
antibacterial agents. Ongoing studies in the area of natural product synthesis generate a
complimentary research effort and these tie well to the synthesis of complex organic molecules. The
Panek group is also affiliated with the Center for Chemical Methodology and Library Development
(CMLD). Boston University is one of four universities in the country involved with CMLD program.
Jim began his higher education at the University of Buffalo (SUNY) with a B.S. in Chemistry, 1979,
and an M.S. and PhD in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Kansas, 1984. He then pursued an
NIH postdoctoral program at Yale University; he specialized in carbon radiation cycle pie strategy
research.
“At first I was assigned to the Matt Merits group but after a few months had decided to move on to
Dale Boger’s group. Professor Boger had some exiting chemistry going on in reaction methodology
surrounding a variant of the Diels-Alder reaction and its potential use for the synthesis of complex
molecules and I knew early on that I’d want to be involved in this type of science. It was, after all,
synthetic organic chemistry that drove the department of medicinal chemistry forward in many facets
of drug discovery, and Dale Boger had plans that had great potential to make a significant impact in
the field of chemical synthesis. The Boger group was an intense research operation happening seven
days a week with tremendous success in the area of reaction development and natural product
synthesis. Several papers from the Boger group have been published in this area and my research was
so intense and on going that other assigned students picked up where I left off upon graduation. Dr.
Boger and I had a very strong working relationship and, toward the end of my doctoral studies, I was
given the opportunity to pursue research projects more independently.
The very last step that I needed to complete, just one day before I was to leave for New Haven,
Connecticut, was a comprehensive German chemical translation exam administered by Professor Bob
Hanzlic. Fortunately, Professor Gunda Georg, a new faculty member, and former postdoctoral
colleague in the Boger group, German born and raised, was available to tutor me in German literature
just before taking the exam and I passed. After that, I could breathe again and get packing for my
postdoctoral studies at Yale University.
In retrospect, I wouldn’t trade my experience at KU for anything, the freedom to speak and learn at
will as well as being the joker in the group presented an awesome experience, but most importantly, I
mastered a level of commitment and quality teaching required in an academic environment of which I
thrive from today”.
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Professor Jeff Aube, PhD, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Kansas, 1986.
Professor Jeffrey Aube achieved his B.S. in Chemistry, magna cum laude, University of Florida at
Coral Cables in 1980. He pursued his PhD. in Organic chemistry at Duke University in 1984, and did
his NIH postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University, 1984 to 1986. He began teaching at the
University of Kansas in 1986 as an assistant professor and obtained full professorship in 1996. Jeff
was also the department interim chair from 2003 to 2005 replaced by the distinguished Professor
Barbara Timmernann. Professor Aube is the Director of KU’s Chemical Methodologies and Library
Design center, an NIH program for the development of combinatorial chemistry – a set of
technologies devoted to the speedier and more efficient development of collections of molecules. The
program, which was funded in 2003, is one of only four such initiatives in the United States. The fiveyear startup NIH grant was approved for 2003. A renewal application for the KU–CMLD was
scheduled to be submitted in 2007, with the eventual goal of eventually replacing the NIH-funded
program with a KU supported center. He’s also a member of the Kansas Masonic Cancer Research
Institute.
“My most important contribution to the department is partnering in the solid education of our graduate
students in chemistry principles. As interim chair I helped to modify the medicinal chemistry graduate
program to lessen course academics and to have a greater focus on laboratory research. This is
because its we do in the lab that really counts in educating graduate students. The department has long
had a solid tradition in delivering the principles of basic chemistry to reinforce the biological aspects
of medicinal chemistry.”
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Dr. George Chang, PhD, 1986, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry; Student of
Professor Matt Mertes.
Dr. Chang began his higher education in 1981 at Pomona College, Claremont, California, with a
B.S. in Chemistry followed by an M.S. in 1983 and a PhD with honors in medicinal chemistry at the
University of Kansas in 1986. He went on to a postdoctoral program at Columbia University under
the advisorship of Professor W. Clark Still. Today, Dr. Chang is an Associate Research Fellow at
Pfizer Inc. in Croton, Connecticut. He is an active member of the Phi Lambda Upsilon, Honorary
Chemical Society, Sigma Xi, Honorary Chemical Society, American Chemical Society, and the
Divisions of Organic, medicinal Chemistry and Computers in Chemistry.
While at the University of Kansas working under Professor Mathias Mertes, George was involved
with extensive research in rational design, synthesis and analysis of probes for the study of the
physical and chemical properties of the active site binding of L. casei Thymidylate Syntheses, and the
design and synthesis of a DNA binding agent. These research areas and many more played a major
role in Matt’s progressive, forward thinking in future drug discoveries.
“My doctoral program in medicinal chemistry began in 1981 under professor Matt Mertes with a class
of 8 graduate students and four of us walk away with PhDs by 1986. The small and close knit group
setting was nurturing and I immediately clicked with Matt Mertes because his lab research projects
were exciting and futuristic. He was savvy. He knew how to lead and think beyond the here and now
but most excitingly, he had a way of diving into medicinal chemistry in a monolithic kind of way.
Everyone was involved in ongoing lab project with total collaboration and all was expected to have
results to a given problem/question. My lab research work was on thymidylate synthesis in search for
a treatment to slow the growth of rapidly spreading cancer cells and hopefully, to stop the growth of
cancer cells altogether. Matt and I published the results of a class of inhibitors that could potentially
slow cancer cell growth. After three years of working with professor Mertes I had the autonomy to
work and think independently and we actually wrote an NIH grant together.
In 1985, Matt returned from a sabbatical in France with some dynamic ideas of host-guest interactions
with enzymes and molecules and expanded the understanding of the specific binding of phosphates to
larger molecules. I have many fond memories of KU. I met my wife Linda while she was a pharmacy
student at KU and who also did a summer program in medicinal chemistry under Dr. Gary Grunewald.
I specifically recall a certain town-house on 1020 Juna Street in Lawrence that was inhabited by
medicinal chemistry students coming and going over the years just by happenstance. It turned out to
be a convenient way of congregating among other medicinal chemistry students in the after hours”.
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Professor Michael B. Doughty, PhD. Associate professor, University of Kansas, Department of
Medicinal Chemistry, 1987-2001.
Dr. Mike Doughty is an associate professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Chemistry and
Physics at Southeastern Louisiana University.
During Mike’s professing at the University of Kansas, he was awarded the KU H.O.P.E. award in
1995, and the Archie and Nancy Dykes award for outstanding classroom teaching excellence in 1998,
and the Kemper fellowship for teaching excellence in 1998.
“Teaching has always been a natural process for me and I marveled in my ability to mentor doctorate
and undergrad students. My degree is in Biochemistry but my background qualified me to teach
medicinal chemistry. I was assigned my first graduate student at KU; and all graduate students were
assigned a PhD. mentor unless they specifically chose a professor. In my 13 years I mentored six
PhD. and one MS student. Early on in my career Pharmacy students were interested in Research in
medicinal chemistry. From 1987 to 1995, I mentored thirteen undergrad students; four of these went
on to grad school. However, in the 1990’s, many of the core electives were taken out of the Pharmacy
program, and undergraduate participation in research declined. My greatest experience at the
University of Kansas was the student-faculty and faculty-faculty collegiality, working together as a
team to obtain essential funding grants for training and new equipment. I received my post-doctoral
training in bioorganic chemistry at Rockefeller University in New York. The late Professor Tom
Kaiser was my mentor and he strongly supported my application to the KU medicinal chemistry
program. In retrospect, it was a wonderful experience”.
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Dr. Anabella Villalobos, PhD, 1987, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Kansas,
Student of Dr. Les Mitscher.
Anabella Villalobos was born and raised in Panama City, Panama. She obtained her B.S. in
Chemistry at the University of Panama in 1981 before going onto the University of Kansas. She was a
Fulbright-Hayes Fellow at KU from 1981 to 1983. After completing two years as a National Institute
of Health Postdoctoral Fellow with Professor Samuel Danishefsky at Yale University, Anabella joined
the Groton, Laboratories at Pfizer Inc. in Connecticut as a Research Scientist in the Central Nervous
System, (CNS) Medicinal Chemistry Group. In June 2001, she became the head of CNS Medicinal
Chemistry and more recently, in April 2007 she was appointed as head of Antibacterial and CNS
Medicinal Chemistry in Groton Research. Anabella has extensive experience in the drug discovery
and development process and as part of the CNS group she has several medicinal chemistry efforts
that have resulted in development candidates for depression, schizophrenia, sleep disorders,
Alzheimer’s disease and stroke. Dr. Villalobos has accomplished many publications and patents in
CNS research.
Upon graduating from the University of Panama, Anabella Villalobos was awarded a Fulbright
Scholarship with a choice of three universities to attend for a doctoral study; KU being one of the
three. Anabella’s chemistry professor, Dr. Armando Batista from the University of Panama and
educated at SUNY-Buffalo, advised her that the University of Kansas would be one of the best for a
doctoral study in medicinal chemistry. Anabella Villalobos began her six month rotation in the
medicinal chemistry department at KU in 1981, at the end of the trial completion she then knew her
place was under Professor Les Mitscher. Dr. Mitscher was doing some exciting chemistry in
synthesizing compounds of sound medicinal use through genuine organic processes and she wished to
be part of that experience. In her early research she got to work on anti-tumor agents and that’s when
she became interested in pursuing a career in the pharmaceutical industry. Les was very supportive of
her goals and pushed Anabella to full capacity in medicinal drug theory and lab research.
Not only the University of Kansas, but the United States was a new environment for Anabella,
especially coming from a warm climate like Panama; she never before saw the sight of snow. One
winter morning, a fellow student, Jim Monn came in the lab and grabbed her to go outside to walk
around in the snow to experience the harsh winter conditions in Kansas; and it was quite invigorating
for her to say the least. At Halloween in 1981, Anabella along with some of first year grad school
peers decided to take a leisure drive to Colorado so Jim Monn could visit his girlfriend but surely her
first sight of the Colorado Rockies must have been nothing less then awe struck. Dr. Villalobos has
fond memories of the Pig roasting parties with Matt Mertes and said it was a perfect time to
congregate with faculty and students. Anabella met her husband during her first year at KU; he had
transferred from the University of Wisconsin along with his professor who had obtained a faculty
position in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at KU.
The University of Kansas, as an institution, had such a nurturing pace going and the learning
environment in the chemistry arena was a positive experience for Anabella. The learning techniques
and tools were not as advanced as they are today but fortunately they did have early computer word
processing programs that allowed Graduate students to automatically scribe their research thesis but
she had to painstakingly hand draw the chemical structures in the days before chemistry draw
computer technology. Anabella says the KU experience was the best and the basketball games were
always great fun. At graduation time, the Mitscher family had a party for her and Betty Mitscher
baked her classic yummy cheese cake and she’s been using her cheese cake recipe ever since.
66
Dr. James Monn, PhD. University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, 1987, former
student of Dr. Gary Grunewald.
Dr. Monn received his B.S. in Chemistry at St. John’s University, Minnesota in 1981. During the
summer of 1980 he participated in the undergraduate research program in medicinal chemistry at KU,
subsequently joining the medicinal chemistry department as a graduate student in 1981. Jim received
the Irsay-Dahle award in 1985 and the graduate honors seminar award in 1986, completing his PhD.
work with honors in 1987. From 1987 to 1989, Jim held a NRSA award-funded postdoctoral
appointment at NIH in the laboratory of Kenner Rice. In 1989, Jim accepted a position at Eli Lilly
and company and continues his work there in the chemistry division, currently holding the title of
Research Fellow.
“During my time of doctorate work at KU (1981-1987), Professor Grunewald’s group was focused on
the effect of conformation on activity for both substrates and inhibitors of the enzyme
phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase (PNMT). The goal of this project was to discover highly
potent and selective inhibitors that could be used to test the hypothesis that inhibition of this enzyme,
responsible for epinephrine biosynthesis, in the brain might constitute a novel mechanism for
regulating blood pressure. The Grunewald laboratory has been committed to this project for many
years now, and the outstanding organic and medicinal chemistry associated with it will be a lasting
testimony to Gary’s commitment to scientific excellence. There were multiple forerunners of this
work prior to my contributions. Among them, Mike Rafferty (Ph.D. 1984 – served as my primary
mentor and role model. He was my graduate student supervisor in the summer of 1980 when I
participated in the department’s summer undergraduate research program and subsequently convinced
me (along with Rick Jochman, a faculty member at St John’s University and former Matt Mertes
student) that a graduate degree in medicinal chemistry in the Grunewald group would be an excellent
opportunity.
The medicinal chemistry department was special in many respects. I recall it as being a very closeknit group with excellent departmental morale and camaraderie. The faculty consisted of Les
Mitscher (chair), Dale Boger (later replaced by Jeff Aube when Dale left for Purdue), Gunda Georg,
Bob Wiley, Bob Hanzlik, Matt Mertes, Ron Borchardt (joint appointment) and Gary Grunewald. My
classmates (Anabella Villalobos (Johnson), George Chang and Dan Sall) and I shared a particularly
close relationship throughout our time together – studying for exams, rehearsing seminars and sharing
lab experiences / exploits. Broader inter-laboratory interactions were encouraged and fostered both
formally (regular departmental meetings – Monday night meetings with organic name-reaction
competitions remain a particularly fond memory) and informally (faculty-sponsored social events,
intramural sports). In particular, the annual MIKI meetings, especially those involving road trips,
were an outstanding vehicle for building a strong sense of departmental identity and unity, though I
confess to now having a distinct aversion to chili omelets, beer and poker prior to nine in the morning.
The department maintained an incredibly strong commitment to ensuring its graduates were
academically well trained in the foundational sciences (chemistry, pharmacology, drug disposition)
that are required for successful careers in medicinal chemistry. In particular, the strong emphasis on
synthetic organic chemistry has been and continues to be a hallmark of the KU medicinal chemistry
department, setting it apart from many other programs across the country. This has undoubtedly been
a valuable asset for graduates when they have later competed for post-graduate, industrial and
academic positions. It certainly was the case for me. Retrospectively, I now see that the department
was (and is) also distinguished in its long-standing commitment to the broader medicinal chemistry
community.
Many faculty members have served in leadership roles for external scientific
organizations (e.g. the MEDI division of the ACS, National Medicinal Chemistry Symposium, Winter
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Conference on Medicinal Chemistry), and this value has subsequently been propagated by many of the
department’s graduates.
I benefited both professionally and personally from my experiences at KU. My training gave me the
scientific foundation that has allowed for subsequent success in the pharmaceutical industry, indirectly
leading to interesting new clinical candidates from my research team. The commitment to the broader
scientific community has motivated me to participating in ACS divisional work and, while lessquantifiable, I know that the hospitality, generosity, integrity, commitment and compassion modeled
by the faculty has helped shaped who I am today”.
68
Dr. John V. Schloss, University of Kansas former Chair and Professor, Department of Medicinal
Chemistry, 1991-2002; KU adjunct professor from 2001 to 2004.
Dr. John Schloss is the director of Chemistry at NeuroSystec, Mann Biomedical Park at
Valencia, California. John achieved his B.S. degree in Biology and Chemistry at the university of
Tulsa, Oklahoma, his PhD. in Biochemistry at the University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge Graduate
School, and did his postdoc in Enzymology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He joined the
medicinal chemistry department as Chairman in November 1991, hired by Dean Howard Mossberg to
assume the Chair’s position held by Professor Les Mitcher who was preparing to step down.
“Bob Hanzlic whom I have known for many years, called me in 1990 to ask if I’d be interested in
coming down to KU for an unofficial interview for the opening Chair’s job. Of course, I agreed, but
thought I’d be a liability and a long shot to be hired as department Chairman and Professor because
I’d only been in Industry at du Pont de Nemours & Co at Wilmington, Delaware. In the summer of
1991, I met and interviewed with department faculty and graduate students and later met privately
with Dean Howard Moseberg at his home. Woe and behold, after answering some rather strenuous
questions and me, the only candidate interviewed without warring a tie that caused some disturbance,
was hired for Chair and full professorship. I must say it was a difficult challenge at first, not having
any academia experience, because over 50% of my time as Chairman involved administrative task that
didn’t include initiating application funding grants which is the premier “Ornament” of being a
Department Chairman; and not teaching my first year at KU certainly helped me get through that first
year of hurdles. My experience with NIH and Industrial funding was brutal at first, and then got better
and worse again. NIH funding in the 1990’s especially, had its peaks and valley’s across the national
university spectrum. My asset of Industrial experience did aid nicely for initiating new contracts and
conducting a top to bottom department review for academia proprieties in industry. The result was a
department transition from B Pharm to Pharm D, basically adding a year of study in medicinal
chemistry components for the school of pharmacy. At the time, I was probably the only Enzymologist
brought in as department Chairman. As I recall, The University of Kansas was ranked number 4 in
pharmacy schools around the country.
Without a doubt, the University of Kansas was more congenial, I believed, then most universities, and
the medicinal chemistry department had a fine marriage with their sister departments in terms of
interdepartmental communication, of course, all thanks to Ed Smissman. One of my fondest memories
was when I collaborated with Morris Faiman and J. Wu on a paten for compounds used in Neural
Protective Agents, still being pursued, and now assigned to a company in San Diego, California.
Initially, the office of Naval Research provided four separate grants over a Ten-year time span in
support of this program. Professor Ernest Schonbrunn, a student at the university of Bochum,
Germany, now head of Crystallography at KU, was a visiting scientist in my laboratory at Du-Pont in
the late nineteen eighties. Ernest had interest in working in the United States and I had strongly
suggested he apply for a medicinal chemistry slot at KU. My transition from industry to academia in
1991 was like going from Hot to cold, nevertheless, it was a unique cross section of self-learned
professing skills, teaching all three new sections of the biochemistry curriculum, and the acquired
department Chair leadership experience, will forever be a wealth of business-education management
tools to draw from. My opportunity came in 2001 to transition my newly learned academia role to
develop and Chair a new Department of Pharmacy at the University of Kuwait. The new department
Dean was professor David Biggs from Alberta, Canada, who had a tremendously diverse background
in academia administration. Dean Biggs’s leadership skills and the constant and unlimited flow of
money from the Kuwaiti government certainly made my job as Chairman, and overseeing the
chemistry department build up, an easy cakewalk.
69
Professor Robin Zavod, PhD, 1992, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry,
student of Dr. Les Mitscher.
Dr. Robin Zavod is an Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Midwestern University,
Chicago College of Pharmacy located in Downers Grove, Illinois. Robin also has a Joint Appointment
in the Department of Biochemistry, Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine
and an Adjunct Professorship in the Department of Chemistry, Illinois Institute of Technology in
Chicago, Illinois. She holds a B.S. degree in Chemistry and Biology from Bucknell University,
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
“While contemplating my future in 1985, a visiting chemist named Bill came to Bucknell from
Merck Pharmaceuticals and he told me that if I wanted to study medicinal chemistry, then I really
should consider going to the University of Kansas; and I wasn’t sure what medicinal chemistry meant
at the time. Eventually I applied and was accepted at both University of Kansas and Virginia
Commonwealth University to pursue my graduate studies in the field of Medicinal Chemistry.
However, all the while, I was well aware of the awesome reputation of the Medicinal Chemistry
program at the University of Kansas, being perhaps the best in the country and I decided that I had to
go for it. During my first year of school, I couldn’t help but notice the genuine and caring attitudes of
its faculty, the quality of students and program curriculum. My first PhD. advisor was Dr. Gunda
Georg, but after my first year I had asked for and was granted a transfer to Professor Les Mitscher’s
group. I was impressed with how versatile and dynamic the student relationships were in his group
and how much support was available from senior students and post-doctoral fellows. The Mitscher
group was known for the breadth of opportunities available to learn a variety of techniques associated
with several niches within medicinal chemistry. Les’s guiding hand in research also brought many
consulting and collaborative opportunities to his research group.
I really can’t say enough about the well-structured academic course work, collegial spirit, and the
overall quality of education that we received; we credited Professor Matt Mertes for keeping the
school of Smissman’s legacy alive. Our intense study of medicinal chemistry, and, sometimesdangerous laboratory research didn’t come without its occasional hazards. One evening in 1991, while
in the process of decomposing about 5 grams of an azide (similar to the chemical used to inflate
vehicle airbags upon impact) in a 100 mL flask, an explosion occurred that sounded like the
equivalent of an M-80 shot. Removal of the glass that was sprayed in my face and torso resulted in
over 300 stitches and several hand surgeries. Needless to say, this episode was a frightening learning
experience that clearly elevated my level of safety caution, but only kept me out of the lab
temporarily. As a result, there was an increased awareness of lab safety, as well as chemical handling
procedures across the department. My life at KU was certainly a wonderful and challenging
experience.
70
Professor Apurba Dutta, PhD, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry; 1993.
Dr. Apurba Dutta, Associate Professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry is from Shillong,
India, and earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. and PhD in Chemistry at North Eastern Hill University at
Shillong throughout the decade of the 1980s. Dr. Dutta did graduate research work at Eastern Hill
University under the direction of Professor H. IIa on developing new synthetic methods for the
transformation of active methylene compounds, via their corresponding oxoketene dithioacetals, to a
diverse class of functionally substituted carbocycles and hetrocycles. In 1989-1991 he was a Research
Associate in the chemistry department of the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur, India, and
taught graduate and undergraduate courses in basic and advanced organic chemistry. In 1991, he was
an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemistry, University of
Konstanz, Germany, and worked with Professor Richard R. Schmidt on the development of
asymmetric synthetic methods.
Dr. Dutta began his intermittent career at the University of Kansas in 1993 as a Postdoctoral Fellow in
the Department of Medicinal Chemistry in Dr. Gunda Georg’s research group, focusing on the
structure-activity relationship studies of the anti-cancer drug Taxol. In 1995, he transitioned to the
Indian Institute of Chemical Technology at Hyderabad, India, where working as a senior scientist, he
developed a research program in the broad area of asymmetric synthesis of biologically active
compounds and development of new synthetic methods; while there he mentored and directed the PhD
theses of four graduate students.
In 1999, he resumed his career at KU and today the Dutta group is primarily focused on organic
synthetic and medicinal chemicals studies of natural and non-natural compounds of biological
significance in anti-infective and anti cancer agents. The compound classes of interest are amino
acids/peptides, nucleosides, carbohydrate mimics, alkaloids and azaheterocyclics.
“The driving force that led me to return to Kansas in 1999 was the unlimited opportunities for
collaborative biochemical research and the availability of top of the line research facilities. For
example, in one of our collaborative projects, we are currently working on a highly promising agent
that, in animal model studies, demonstrated excellent activity in preventing septic-shock”.
71
Dr. Sunil David, PhD, 1995, Assistant Professor, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal
Chemistry
Dr. Sunil David achieved his M.D. and PhD at Madras University, India in 1986 and 1995
respectively. Before coming to the University of Kansas he was a lecturer of biochemistry at Christen
Medical College Hospital at Vellore, India, a visiting scientist at Forschungszentrum, Borstel,
Germany, and a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science at
Bangalore, India. In 1996, he began his journey at KU as a Senior Research Associate in the
Department of Microbiology at KU Medical Center in 2000. He moved on as a Research Assistant
Professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences and in January 2004 and later became Assistant
Professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry. He is an active member of the International
Indotoxin Society, American Chemical Society, and the American Society for Microbiology.
Dr. David’s base research interest is in drug design and development in molecular mechanisms of host
responses to pathogens with emphasis on innate immunity and inflammatory responses to bacterial
products; molecular recognition; proteomics and protein structure and function. Today, he mentors
four undergrad, three graduate, three research assistants and two postdoctoral students and the group’s
primary research focus is in the design and development of anti-endotoxin agents for the prevention
and therapy of gram-negative septic shock. In collaboration with Dr. Apurba Dutta, the David group is
in the patenting stage of this research development and is now undergoing animal studies.
“Sepsis is the leading cause of mortality in the intensive care unit. A common and more serious
sequel of systemic bacterial infections, sepsis accounts for some 200,000 fatalities annually in the
United States alone, a figure higher than that attributes to AIDS and breast cancer combined. The
pathogenesis of Gram-negative septic shock, a leading cause of mortality in critically ill patents is a
consequence of the host response to endotoxins, or lipopolysaccharides (LPS), present on the surface
of gram-negative bacteria. We have shown that relatively simple and synthetically easily accessible
molecules of the lipopolyamine class specifically bind to the toxic “Lipid A” portion of LPS and
neutralize its toxicity both in vitro and, importantly, in well established animal models of septic shock.
Using experimentally determined structural leads as our point of departure, and using a battery of
established and biophysical and biological assays, we are now testing hypotheses pertaining to
specific structural requirements that ascribe endotoxin-binding and neutralizing properties in synthetic
small molecules with the aim of developing promising leads as candidate for endotoxin sequestrants
of potential clinical value. At present we are evaluating eleven classes of lipopolyamines, the design
of which not only incorporates structural features that dictate the specific molecular recognition of
LPS, but also avoids those features that correspond to toxicity. The interactions of the test compounds
with LPS are being analyzed quantatavely using a rapid-throughput florescence displacement assay.
In a panel of in vitro assays, the potency of the test compounds in inhibiting the release of LPSmediated proinflamitory cytokines is being characterized. Our ultimate goal is to develop drugs that
are designed to neutralize endotoxin, and thereby prevent Gram-negative sepsis. We are indeed
excited on the design and development of anti-endotoxin agents for the prevention and therapy of
Gram-negative septic shock. Our future agenda will involve medicinal research in advanced molecular
agents for combating malaria and tuberculosis”.
72
Professor (assistant) Ernst Schonbrunn, Department of Medicinal Chemistry – School of Pharmacy,
University of Kansas; 2000.
Dr. Ernst Schonbrunn came to the University of Kansas from the Department of Biochemistry at
Fort Collins, Colorado in June 2000. He holds joint appointments to the faculty at the University of
Kansas Medical Center as assistant professor of the department of Microbiology, School of Medicine
and a courtesy appointment to the faculty of Molecular Biosciences. He was director of KU medical
school X-Ray Crystallography Core (2002-2004), director of the protein Structure Laboratory at the
Lawrence campus, (2001-2004) and director of the High-Throughput Screaming Laboratories at KU
(2006-2007).
Professor Schonbrunn’s group laboratory focus is on the elucidation of the structure-function
relationship of medicinally relevant proteins using protein crystallography combined with methods in
biochemistry and molecular biology. In parallel, they apply high-throughput screening and rational
design for the discovery of novel inhibitors. This function of drug targeting is spectacularly dynamic
because one can see the atomic resolution in the process of Crystallography.
“I came to the University of Kansas in 2000 as a medicinal chemist to explore drug targets at the
atomic level and to identify sites that can be targeted by new inhibitors with potential as future drugs.
The basic concept is to identify a potential drug target (protein), clone the gene of interest, purify the
protein, and crystallize the protein, subject the crystals to X-Rays then look at the electron density for
results. In past years we have established ourselves as a leading group in the inhibitor discovery for
the antibiotic targets MurA and EPSP synthesis. Recently, we have begun to expand our studies
toward a number of mammalian proteins, anti-cancer targets, male contraceptive targets and proteins
thought to be involved in neurodegenerative diseases. Thus, the spectrum of prospective drug targets
under investigation in our laboratory is diverse and growing continuously. During the entire inhibitor
discovery process, we closely collaborate with researchers of various disciplines from synthetic
organic chemistry to cell biology to devise strategies for the optimization of the best inhibitors with
respect to drug-like properties”.
73
Professor Jane Aldrich, PhD, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Kansas; 2001.
Dr. Jane Aldrich moved to the University of Kansas in 2001 from the Department of Pharmaceutical
Sciences at the University of Maryland Baltimore. In addition to her appointment in Medicinal
Chemistry, she is also a courtesy professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. Professor
Aldrich has been very active in professional organizations. She has served as Chair of the Medicinal
Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society (2000), and as President of the American
Peptide Society (2005-2007). In addition, she was Co-chair of the Gordon Research Conference on
Peptides: Chemistry and Biology (2004) and served as an editor of the journal Letters in Peptide
Science (1999-2004). Professor Aldrich has served the Department of Medicinal Chemistry as
Director of Graduate Studies (2003-2007) and oversaw a number of changes to the graduate
curriculum, including the introduction of research rotations for first year graduate students in 2004 and
the addition of a biochemistry track to the curriculum in 2006. She also assisted Professor Grunewald
with the successful remodeling grant submitted to the National Institutes of Health in 2003 that
resulted in the modernization of the synthetic chemistry laboratories in the department.
Professor Aldrich’s research focuses on the design and synthesis of peptidic ligands for opioid
receptors and on the development of synthetic methodology to prepare novel peptide and
peptidomimetic analogs. She currently devotes 75% of her time on research in medicinal chemistry as
a result of the Independent Scientist Award that she received from the National Institute on Drug
Abuse (NIDA). She is also the principal investigator on two research projects funded by NIDA on
peptidic affinity labels for opioid receptors and on peptidic ligands for kappa opioid receptors.
“Affinity labels are compounds that bind irreversibly to their targets and can be very useful tools to
study the interactions of the compounds with their receptors. The long term goal of this research is to
identify where the affinity labels attach on the receptors and thereby get detailed information at the
molecular level on how the peptides bind to their receptors.”
“Our major goal in the second project is to examine novel peptide ligands with high kappa receptor
affinity and selectivity that can be used as pharmacological tools to better understand kappa receptorpeptide interactions at the molecular level. This research involves examining the interactions of
analogs of the opioid peptide dynorphin A possessing both agonist and antagonist activity with kappa
opioid receptors as well as novel small peptides unrelated to dynorphin A with high kappa receptor
affinity.”
Professor Aldrich is also the principal investigator on a pilot project that is examining the transport of
basic opioid peptides across the blood-brain barrier utilizing a cell culture model (the bovine brain
miccrovessel endothelial cell model). “I’m very excited about the potential of developing opioid
peptides for possible therapeutic use, but for many applications this requires that the peptides
penetrate into the brain. In addition, the peptides have to be sufficiently stable to metabolism so that
they can reach their site of action and interact with opioid receptors. Therefore it’s also important for
us to understand how these peptides are metabolized.”
“I got to know faculty from KU, particularly Professor Grunewald, through my professional activities
in the American Chemical Society. What really inspired me to come to KU were the people and their
strong commitment to the science of drug discovery and drug delivery. I’m pleased and fortunate to
have the resources and tools here at KU that enables me to do the science I enjoy”.
74
Professor Brian Blagg, PhD, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry; 2002.
Dr. Brian Blagg came to the University of Kansas as faculty in August 2002, prior to which he was
an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the Scripps Research Institute in lajeol, California, working under the
guidance of Dale Bogar. Dr. Blagg received his PhD in Organic Chemistry in 1999 at the University
of Utah under the supervision of C. Dale Poulter and his B.A. in Chemistry and Environmental
Studies at Sonoma State University in 1994. In 2005, Professor Blagg was awarded the University of
Kansas Center for Teaching Excellence Award and in 2006 he was recognized as an American Cancer
Society Research Scholar.
The Blagg Research Team is focused on the design, synthesize and evaluation of novel inhibitors of
the Hsp90 protein folding process. The group achieves these goals using state of the art computer
modeling techniques to design new molecules that bind the ATP binding sites. In addition, researchers
in the Blagg laboratory develop new organic reactions that allow access to the desired compounds in a
highly efficient manner. The multidisciplinary nature of this lab is also addressed through the
development of enzymatic assays that are suitable for determining the biological effects of their
rationally designed Hsp90 inhibitors. The Blagg group is currently engaged in over 30 collaborative
studies with researchers throughout the world. The ultimate goal of this research is to develop
therapeutic agents for the treatment of cancer and neurodegenerative disorders The Blagg group is
tirelessly collaborating with researchers worldwide for additional opportunities to study disease via
Hsp90 inhibition process.
“Professor Dale Bogar, my postdoctoral advisor at The Scripps Research Institute encouraged me to
apply for a faculty position at the University of Kansas in 2001 because the department is well known
for its application of organic chemistry to address biological questions. To date, we have sent out
many of our promising compounds to our collaborative laboratories for which they are being currently
used in animal studies.”
The kDa90 heat shock proteins (Hsp90) are molecular chaperones required for the refolding of
denatured proteins and the maturation of nascent polypeptides into biologically active, threedimensional structures. In fact, numerous proteins represented in all six hallmarks of cancer are
dependent upon Hsp90 for conformational maturation. Hsp90 inhibition provides a combinatorial
attack on multiple pathways responsible for malignant cell growth and proliferation. Consequently,
Hsp90 has emerged as a promising target for the development of cancer chemotherapeutics.
75
Dr. Aaron Wrobleski, PhD., 2003, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Former
Student of Professor Jeff Aube.
Aaron is employed with Eli Lilly & Co. at Indianapolis, Indiana, since March 2006. He obtained
his B.S. in chemistry with a minor in biology at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, 1999. In the
summer of that year he conducted medicinal chemistry research in the laboratories of Professor Jeff
Aube. Aaron then went on to pursue a Doctorate at the University of Kansas, Department of
Medicinal Chemistry with Professor Jeff Aube and completed his theses in 2003. In January 2004 he
embarked on a postdoctoral research position at the University of California Irvine with a focus on
Synthetic Organic Chemistry under the tutelage of Professor Larry Obberman.
“My comprehensive training in medicinal chemistry, synthetic organic chemistry, and independent
problem solving, all acquired at KU and Irvine, is perfectly suited for the work I’m doing at Eli Lilly.
Early on at KU, I chose to join Jeff Aube’s research group to study the total synthesis of complex
natural products. I was interested in acquiring the skills necessary to construct Nature’s molecules in a
research laboratory setting. A major project of mine in the Aube group was to research methods
toward the total syntheses of Frog-Toxins, in particular, the alkaloid 251-F. Alkaloid 251-F, it was
felt, would serve as an impressively complex natural product to demonstrate the utility of the
intermolecular Schmidt reaction towards the total syntheses of architecturally intriguing alkaloids.
Ultimately, this key reaction delivered the core ring structure of 251-F en route to a completed total
synthesis. The intermolecular Schmidt reaction has served as an area of particular interest to the aube
research group. In fact, most of my research projects in Jeff’s laboratories focused on studying various
features of the Schmidt reaction. My final research project, one not focused on the utility of the
Schmidt reaction, involved the early stages of a total synthesis of gelsemime. After a few months, and
about ready to graduate, I passed on this work to a second year graduate student. Toward the end of
my graduate work I was involved in collaborating with Jeff Aube on writing a book chapter describing
the utility of the Schmidt reaction.
In retrospect, I loved the camaraderie at KU and loved the city of Lawrence. I lived in a house on Jana
Drive shared by many medicinal chemistry students. I also had the great privilege of befriending and
rooming with fellow medicinal chemistry students Anthony Romero and Jarde Spletstoser, both of
whom I regularly keep in contact with. We hung out together around Lawrence and enjoyed many of
the social activities available on or near Mass Avenue. Overall, KU and Lawrence turned out to be a
wonderful place to learn science and make good friends”.
76
Professor Emily Scott, Ph.D., 1998, Rice University, Houston, Texas, Assistant Professor, Department
of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Kansas, 2004.
Before coming to the University of Kansas in May 2004, Dr. Scott was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Texas Medicinal Branch at Galveston,
Texas with Dr. James R. Halpert. In 1998, Emily was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of
Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Rice University and in 1992 she obtained a B.S. in Marine Biology
at Texas A&M University. Today Professor Scott is an Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at
the University of Kansas and is primarily involved in research funded by the National Institute of
General Medical Sciences on the structural basis of the human lung cytochrome P450 2A13.
“Our research centers on a family of enzymes called cytochromes P450. Cytochromes P450 are
responsible for altering many drugs and other foreign chemicals so they can be removed from the
human body. The altered chemicals that result from cytochrome P450 action can have either
increased or decreased drug action or increased or decreased toxicity, depending on the molecule and
the specific modification. Our long-term goal is to be able to predict which of the 57 human
cytochromes P450 will act on a particular drug or other foreign compound and what the chemical
product will be. Our general approach is to determine the specific size, shape, and chemistry of the
site on the enzymes where the foreign chemicals bind using X-ray crystallography. Once we know
this information, we can determine which foreign chemicals would fit into a particular cytochrome
P450 binding site and what their orientation would be. This allows prediction of the altered products
that could be generated.
I am particularly excited about our current research on the human lung cytochrome P450 2A13. This
cytochrome P450 activates a nicotine-derived nitrosamine into two DNA-altering compounds that
ultimately cause lung cancer. One research objective is to find or design a small molecule that fits
specifically into the 2A13 protein to prevent nicotine-induced lung cancer from starting. This research
program is now funded independently by the National Institutes of Health but grew out of the COBRE
program in Protein Structure and Function led by Dr. Robert Hanzlik. This work entails
collaborations with the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory to collect X-ray data, with the KU
High Throughput Screening Lab to identify small molecules that bind 2A13, and with researchers at
other institutions to test our compounds in live animals. Our research is a part of an effort to prevent
nicotine-induced lung cancer rather than treating cancer once it is established”.
77
Dr. Anthony Romero, PhD, 2004, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Former
Student of Professor Gary Grunewald.
Anthony Romero is a medicinal scientist in the department of target validation, Merck & Co., Inc.
since November 2006. Anthony achieved his A.B. in chemistry at Occidental College, Los Angelis,
1998. In 2000 he went on to pursue his M.S. (2000) and Ph.D. (2004) in medicinal chemistry at the
University of Kansas. Following his graduate work he pursed a postdoctoral research program on the
development of inhibitors of fatty acid amid hydrolase at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla,
California, under the advisorship of Dr. Dale Boger. While at KU Anthony was involved with one of
Professor Grunewald’s long-time capsule PNMT research project.
“My time at KU was a great experience with many evolved life learning discoveries. Professor Gary
Grunewald was nothing short of a wonderful and patient advisor and mentor; and indeed a stickler for
quality science and scientific writing skills. In the beginning Gary didn’t think I’d make it through,
and I didn’t think I’d make it through the program for that matter. But of course Gary knew, as he
knows with all of his students, past and present, that with persistence and attention to scientific detail,
one can do it, and I certainly did. Moreover, my contemporary fellow students at KU are now my best
consulting professional friends, hopefully for a lifelong collegiality connection. Gary strongly
believed in the intensive learn curve but also believed in the “party” relaxation mode and thought that
“alcohol” was an important component of letting it out; I know the mug of brew is his favorite. It was
all great fun offsetting the disciplined environment of learning medicinal science.
My research in Gary’s group was exciting involving the design and syntheses of inhibitors of the
enzyme (PNMT) and it was amazing to be a part of and learn about structural-base design. In the end
we had some extraordinary inhibitors of the enzyme that have the potential to become a successful
drug someday. Where do we go from here? I am currently a consultant on one Dr. Grunewald’s NIH
grants offering my expertise on drug optimization and in particular in fragment-based drug
discovery”.
78
Dr. Matt Cerny, PhD., 2005, University of Kansas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Former
Student of Professor Bob Hanzlic.
Matt Cerny is a Medicinal Chemist for Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Incorporated, at San Diego,
California since August 2006. Matt comes from Edwardsville, Illinois, and he began his college
education at Butler University at Indianapolis in pharmacy and later switched his degree program to
medicinal chemistry; he obtained his degree in medicinal chemistry in 1998. In August that same year
Matt went on to the University of Kansas and achieved his (M.S.) and (PhD) in Medicinal Chemistry,
February 2005. Later in 2005 he pursued his postdoctoral program at the Human Bio-molecular
Research Institute, San Diego, California, in medicinal chemistry and drug metabolism under the
advisement of Dr. John Cashman; John is also a former KU doctoral student of Professor Bob
Hanzlic.
“Graduate school at KU was probably the most challenging time of my life. Upon arrival at KU, I was
immediately immersed in Drug research and was literally working in the “Hood” within a few days
simultaneously getting acquainted with lab safety and chemistry functional language groups. It was
all monumental multi-tasking in the first year, and I opted to join the Hanzlic group and ended up
working on three different drug reactions simultaneously and several publications were written on the
processes along the way. The multi-research work involved was so intense that I struggled to achieve
one goal at a time to get to the next level but only to find myself starting over on a new process of
syntheses; it was really like trying to crawl out of a hole you could see from the bottom but couldn’t
quite crawl your way to the top as there was always another step thrown in the works. In retrospect,
the last, and unexpected process steps were crucial in getting a clear picture of the right results for a
final analyses; and one seldom ever gets the whole story in the final process anyway.
The last research project (actually my theses work) involved drug metabolism and enzyme
mechanisms and inhibitors. My primary research focus under Hanzlic was in identifying drug
inhibitors to help drugs better metabolize in the body, basically to kill the enzymes systemically that
would mimic the bodies ability to metabolize drugs to better flow through the body with little or no
side effects. This process involved many different research diverges, and some animal work was
accomplished to see what gets broken up and where it goes; do all the drug components add up to a
100% matabolization process? Perhaps yes, or no. In the end, my Theses project, the entire research
package, and all the Hanzlic work assignments really got me where I am today. The puzzle of
chemistry has a way of jelling at the next crossroad. It was a phenomenal time with no regrets; of
course I can say that now!
79
Dr. Barbara N. Timmermann, University of Kansas, Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of
Medicinal Chemistry; 2005.
Professor Barbara Timmermann joined the KU faculty in August 2005 following an academic
career of nearly 25 years at the University of Arizona. After completing a B.S. in Biology (Honors) at
the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Argentina in 1970, she began graduate research at the
University of Texas at Austin and received an M.S. in 1977 and a Ph.D. in 1980 in Botany
(Phytochemistry). In 1981, she joined the faculty in the Department of Pharmacutical Sciences at the
University of Arizona, ascended the professional ranks and established a research program in natural
products chemistry. With funding from the NIH, she established the Arizona Center for
Phytomedicine Research which received an official endorsement from the Arizona Board of Regents
for the study of botanical medicines and completed a 12 year term as the Director of the Latin
American Cooperative Biodiversity Group (ICBG) Program. While at Arizona, Barbara was named a
Regents Professor, a title that recognizes the highest academic merit and is reserved for only three
percent of tenured faculty members who have demonstrated exceptional scholarship and outstanding
achievement at Arizona’s public universities.
Professor Timmermann’s primary research interest focus on the discovery and biological investigation
of novel compounds as drug leads in the treatment of cancer, infectious and inflammatory diseases
from plant and microbial biodiversity. Additional research focuses on the safety and efficacy studies
of botanical medicines and there formulations. Funding for her research has been provided by the
National Institutes of Health (NIH); National Science Foundation (NSF); US Department of
Agriculture (USDA); US Agency for International Development (USAID); The John D, and Catherine
T. MacArthur Foundation; Tinker Foundation; Arizona Disease Control Research Commission; and
various Pharmaceutical and chemical corporations. While at KU, she assumed the direction of the
NIH COBRE (Center of Biomedical Research Excellence) Center for Cancer Experimental
Therapeutics (CCET) when Professor Gunda Georg moved to the University of Minnesota in January
2007.
She is the author or co-author of more than 180 publications in peer-reviewed scientific literature and
numerous research reviews, a co-editor of two proceeding volumes and 18 book chapters, and the coauthor of the book “Sesquiterpene Lactones: Chemistry, NMR and Distribution”. Barbara is
frequently invited to speak at national and international conferences and workshops and serves on the
Editorial Board of the Journal of Natural Products and is an elected member of the Executive
Committee of the American Society of Pharmacology. Professor Timmermann has been an active
member of the American Society of Pharmaccognosy for many as well as the Phytochemical Society
of North America, Phytochemical Society of Europe, American Association for the Advancement of
Science and the American Chemical Society. She serves as a member of various advisory boards
including the American Botanical Council and the International Organization for Chemical Sciences
in Developing Countries. In 2000, she was elected Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science and more recently, she was named a 2006-2007 Women of Distinction at
KU.
Professor Timmermann’s remarkable record of commitment in the classroom has mirrored her
research career. She has served as a research advisor and educational sponsor for numerous
postdoctoral, doctoral, undergraduate and professional pharmacy students who occupy important
positions throughout the world in academia, research institutions, the pharmaceutical industry as well
as the US Government.
“It was indeed difficult for me to leave the University of Arizona after 25 years. I could have just as
well remained in a place that I loved, and retire from, but I was compelled by many of my professional
contemporaries to consider taking the position at the University of Kansas; and I was intrigued by
KUs reputation of having one of the top medicinal chemistry departments in the United States and the
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world. In 2005, the School of Pharmacy wanted to expand natural products chemistry courses and
establish a new group in the field and it wasn’t long before I realized that the KU group had something
spectacular going in this field of research that most other universities don’t have. This is what
separates the KU group from the status-quo among many other universities. I believe one of our
department’s greatest accomplishments on my watch were to recruit two top medicinal scientists to
our faculty; Associate Professor Thomas Prisinzano from the University of Iowa, and Professor Blake
Peterson from Pennsylvania State University; and we fought and won a hard battle with other
universities in competition to acquire these two distinguished scientist. I strongly felt it was paramount
that we expand our faculty to maintain a second-to-none quality department with the most advanced
intellectual minds to discern and deliver the most advanced information in the field of drug discovery.
To have an excellent working team equals to a harmonious department atmosphere and a real culture
of collaboration but that’s really easy at KU because we have an optimum team concept, with great
people involved. My continuous goal is to keep KUs Department of Medicinal Chemistry on top of
the pyramid and moreover, to nurture our young faculty and promote senior faculty to upper levels of
department responsibility.”
“Our future horizon is getting brighter. Several faculty members will be occupying in 2008, brand new
research facilities on west campus in support of KU’s drug discovery efforts. Moreover, Dean Ken
Audes is in the process of raising funds for new construction of a new School of Pharmacy building
on the west campus. All the ongoing activities will contribute enormously to the success of future
generations involved in biomedical research at KU”.
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