Project Summary:

The need for new therapeutics to treat bacetrial infections of relevance to global health and biodefense is undeniable. The spread of these types of infection, along with in many cases extensive resistance to approved drugs, has necessitated a change in the paradigm for discovering novel small molecules to study the basic biology of the causative pathogens and seed the development of innovative treatments. This project will such provide such chemical entities, relying on a new computational strategy that learns from existing, broad-sweeping screens assessing the vulnerability of these pathogens to libraries of commercially available drug-like molecules. This computational methodology in concert with pharmaceutical industry-proven medicinal chemistry practices will evolve these initial molecules into high-value chemical probes and/or preclinical drug candidates.

Biography: 

Dr. Freundlich is an associate professor of Pharmacology & Physiology and Medicine at Rutgers University–New Jersey Medical School. He is a faculty member of the Center for Emerging and Reemerging Pathogens. Prior to his return to academic research in 2006, he spent eight years in the pharmaceutical industry as a medicinal chemist. His undergraduate and master’s degree training were in chemical engineering at Cornell University as a McMullen Dean’s Scholar. He received his doctorate in organic chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the tutelage of 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awardee Richard Schrock. An overarching goal of his current research is the discovery of small molecules that modulate novel biological targets in Mycobacetrium tuberculosis – the causative agent of tuberculosis. To accomplish their aims, his lab typically employs computational, chemical, and biological techniques. His laboratory is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Contact info:

Joel S. Freundlich, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Departments of Pharmacology & Physiology and Medicine
Center for Emerging and Reemerging Pathogens
Rutgers University
Medical Sciences Building I-503
185 South Orange Avenue
Newark, NJ 07103
(973) 972-7165 (office)
E-mail: freundjs@rutgers.edu
http://njms.rutgers.edu/departments/labs/freundlich/