The 144th Annual Meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (Yokohama)

Organizer: Kazumitsu Onizuka (IMRAM, Tohoku Univ.), Noriko Saito-Tarashima (Grad. Sch. Pharm. Sci., Tokushima Univ.)

In recent years, mid-size drugs such as peptides and nucleic acids have attracted attention as a new modality that combines the advantages of both small molecule drugs and biopharmaceuticals. Mid-size drugs have the characteristics of being able to target intracellular targets, have high target specificity, and can be chemically synthesized, and is expected to be a next-generation drug that will play a role in expanding drug discovery targets.
With the aim of creating mid-size drugs, a variety of research is underway, focusing on a wide range of molecular types, including peptides, nucleic acids, sugar chains, and artificial chimeric molecules. To efficiently synthesize and highly functionalize these molecules, next-generation molecular and analytical technologies suitable for molecular species, new functionalization concepts and fusion research between molecular types are required. In this symposium, "Frontiers of mid-size drug discovery research—next generation molecular technology that contributes to mid-size drug discovery—", five speakers with diverse molecular technologies contributing to mid-size drug discovery will give lectures on some of the latest research.