The 141st Annual Meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (Hiroshima)

Organizer: Oba Makoto (Grad. Sch. Med., Kyoto Pref. Univ. Med.), Usui Kazuteru (Faculty of Pharm. Sci., Showa Pharm. Univ.), Demizu Yosuke (NIHS)

The term ‘foldamer’, which is an artificial oligomer molecule with a regular and constant secondary or tertiary structure, was coined by Prof. S. H. Gellman (University of Wisconsin, USA) in 1996.[1] More than 20 years have passed since then, various types of foldamers have been developed, and their unique structural characteristics have been clarified.[2] In addition, researches toward functionalization have been carried out energetically, and foldamers have the potential not only as tools for chemical biology research, but also as drug candidates.[3]
In this symposium, there will be five pharmacy and non-pharmacy symposiasts in a well-balanced manner, and we will approach the attractiveness of foldamers from a wide variety of perspectives. In other words, we will discuss the possibility of foldamers for functionalization in a broad sense, from basic research to applied research for materials and drug discovery, with different molecules such as nucleic acids, peptides, and artificial helical molecules as building blocks.
[1] S. H. Gellman et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1996, 118, 13071.
[2] G. Guichard, I. Huc, Chem. Commun. 2011, 47, 5933.
[3] E. Valeur et al., J. Med. Chem. 2016, 59, 9599.