Some Thoughts on Biotech vs Pharma for Computational Chemists
A recent editorial by Dean Brown in J Med Chem and follow-up posts by Keith Hornberger and Derek Lowe prompted me to think about how we train computational chemists and cheminformaticians for careers in drug discovery. It also brought to mind some unique differences between how computational chemistry is practiced in biotech and pharma. For those who haven’t read Dean Brown’s editorial and the subsequent reactions, I’d highly recommend them. In short, the authors focused on how medicinal chemists were trained in the past and how biotech and the growth of outsourcing are changing that model. Traditionally, most medicinal chemists received academic training in organic synthesis labs and then learned medicinal chemistry on the job from more experienced colleagues. Chemists would typically start at the bench and gradually transition to roles where they led groups and/or drug discovery project teams. With the rise of smaller biotechs and the advent of chemistry outsourcing, many me...