Current Concepts in Drug Design

The newer research areas in pharmaceutical sciences, in particular molecular modeling and simulations prompted more efficient drug discovery process. Informatics integrated with pharmaceutical sciences (cheminformatics and bioinformatics) became an essential component of drug research. Drug informatics such as genomics and proteomics assists in the Rational Drug Design (RDD). This emerging discipline is known as “Computer-Aided Drug Design (CADD)”, which has profound application in rational drug design (RDD). Pharmacy Council of India (PCI), New Delhi also introduced these concepts into the curriculum of pharmacy graduate courses. The advanced and adequate practice in drug design informatics is essential for pharmacy graduates (B. Pharmacy and M. Pharmacy). Hence, a companion for acquiring the knowledge on these concepts is essential. With this intension, the author has taken an attempt to bring this book. The students of B. Pharmacy, M. Pharmacy (Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Pharmaceutics), bio-technology, biomedical engineering and other interdisciplinary fields may find this book as reference guide. The salient features of this book are: • Systematic and simple approach • Emphasis on traditional and modern drug design strategies • Comprehensive coverage for the current advances in the drug design • Experimental section to ensure hands-on-experience Contents: 1. Drug Discovery Informatics 2. Receptors3. Molecular Biology 4. Drug Discovery and Development 5. Quantitative –Structure Activity Relationship (QSAR) 6. Molecular Modeling 7. Virtual Screening 8. Molecular Docking 9. Sequence Analysis 10. Pairwise Sequence Alignment (PSA) 11. Molecular Evolution, Multiple Sequence Alignment (MSA) and Phylogenetic Analysis12. Gene Prediction, Hidden Markov Model and Motif Identification 13. Structure Prediction About the Author: T. Durai Ananda Kumar, M Pharm, Ph.D., is working as an Assistant Professor, in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, JSS College of Pharmacy (a constituent College of JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research), Sri Shivarathreeshwara Nagara, Mysuru. He has 13 years of teaching experience and taught Medicinal Chemistry, Computer-Aided Drug Design, Food analysis, Herbal and cosmetic analysis and Pharmaceutical validation for B. Pharmacy and M. Pharmacy students. He has guided research projects for B. Pharmacy and M. Pharmacy (Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Analysis) students. He has research experience on the Structure Based Drug Design (SBDD), computer simulations and chemometrics approaches. He has published research articles in various National and International journals. He has authored two books titled, Elementary Pharmacoinformatics and Experimental Organic Medicinal Chemistry-Principles and Practice. He is on editorial board of Research and Reviews: Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Research and Reviews: Journal of Pharmacology, European Journal of Bioinformatics, International Journal of Innovations in Biological and Chemical Sciences and OA Journals Catalysts. He is a life member of Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India (APTI) and registered pharmacist of Tamilnadu State Pharmacy Council.