Medicinal chemistry education: What is needed and where is it going?

At a recent symposium in Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, the future of education in medicinal chemistry was discussed in terms of its role in the drug discovery process. The questions posed included: What is the necessary knowledge basis for the medicinal chemist?; How and where should this be achieved?; The role of the university; The impact of developing countries and globalization; Is medicinal chemistry a single discipline? It remains true that organic chemistry remains at the heart of the discipline, but structure-property relationships are now an increasingly important component. Additionally, the linkage between chemistry and biology is more important with the rise of chemical biology. The relationships between industry and the university have become more important in recent years, yet some caution may be appropriate lest the traditional role of the university be neglected. The dominance of the Western world in science for the past two centuries has ensured that medicinal chemistry has been strongest in those countries. This dominance is likely to be diminished in the next several decades.