Rationalizing Drug Discovery? The Early History of Antimetabolites (1940–1960)

Time: 12:00pm

Location: Chemical Heritage Foundation

In this talk Thibaut will start by presenting the origins of the theory of antimetabolites that appeared in 1940 with the work of the British biochemists Donald D. Woods and Paul Fildes as part of their investigation into the mode of action of the sulfa drugs. Then he will discuss how the theory was conceived and used in the following years as a principle for rational drug discovery that could ideally allow researchers to go beyond the random screening of chemicals or natural products. Finally, highlighting the immediate successes and failures of this new kind of principle, he intends to show how the early history of antimetabolites can help us understand the discourse of rationality in pharmaceutical research and how this discourse supported the idea of an application of fundamental research in drug discovery.