Name:
Patrick M Woster
Country:
USA
City:
Charleston
State/Province:
SC
ACS Member:
Non-member
Local Section:
L435,South Carolina
International Chapter:
Technical Division Membership:
D503,Biological Chemistry Division;D518,Medicinal Chemistry Division
Technical Division Membership Emeritus:
Subdivision Member:
ACS Activities:
Division of Medicinal Chemistry Secretary, Public Relations Chair, Newsletter Editor and Webmaster, 1994 to present.
ACS Fellow, Class of 2014
Company/Institution Name:
Medical University of South Carolina
Career Stage:
Professional
Research and Special Interests:
Patrick M. Woster received a B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in 1978, and a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Nebraska in 1986. Following postdoctoral work in chemistry at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1986), and in medicinal chemistry at the University of Michigan (1987), he joined the Wayne State University Faculty of Pharmacy in 1988. From 1988 to 2011, he served as Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. In 2011, he moved to the Medical University of South Carolina, where he was appointed Professor and SmartState™ Endowed Chair in Drug Discovery. He also serves as Interim Director of the MUSC Center for Therapeutic Discovery and Development, and in 2015 he was appointed Chair of the Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences. Current research efforts in the Woster laboratories include the synthesis and evaluation of small molecule and peptidomimetic inhibitors of lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) as epigenetic modulators for the treatment of cancer, epigenetic modulators of sickle cell disease, synthesis and evaluation of oligoamine analogues as potential antitumor, antiparasitic or antibacterial agents, synthesis and evaluation of targeted histone deacetylase inhibitors as antineoplastic agents, and the discovery of mechanism-based enzyme inhibitors. Over the past 28 years, Dr. Woster's research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization and several other extramural funding sources. He has authored 125 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 122 scientific abstracts and 15 patent applications outlining his research results. He has also given more than 100 invited and contributed presentations at national and international conferences, organized numerous scientific sessions and served as Chair of the 2009 Gordon Research Conference on Polyamines. Dr. Woster was co-organizer of Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry 2013, and served as Chair and Organizer of the 2014 National Medicinal Chemistry Symposium. He has served on numerous grant review panels, including more than 25 NIH review panels. He is a current member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, and serves as a reviewer for more than 50 scientific journals. During his career, he has mentored 19 graduate students and 12 postdoctoral associates, served on more than 50 Ph.D. dissertation committees, and mentored numerous undergraduate researchers. Dr. Woster is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Chemical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry. In 2014, he was elected as a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, and in 2015 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He has been extremely active in the American Chemical Society, and has served as an officer and executive committee member for the Division of Medicinal Chemistry for 24 years. He has also been active in the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, serving as Secretary and then Chair of the Section of Teachers of Chemistry (2003-2004), Chair of the Academic Sections Coordinating Committee (2004-2005) and as a member of the Executive Board of Directors (2004-2005).
Area of Expertise:
drug design, enzyme inhibition, mechanism-based inhibitors, polyamine biochemistry, chromatin remodeling (histone deacetylase inhibitors, lysine-specific demethylase 1 inhibitors), polyamine/metal complexes, antitumor agents, antiparasitic agents
Years of Expertise:
26 or more