Semester:Week 2 This week at chemistry seminar we had the opportunity to learn about the drug discovery process from Dr. Brian Johns. It was very nice to know that Dr. Johns was a former Andrews University graduate. The seminar he presented was one of the best we have had all year. He presented the steps that a drug goes through from the idea to the final FDA approved product. This was very accessible even to those who have a limited chemistry background. He also went into the specifics of HIV and how it infects a T cell. One of the things that I learned during the seminar was that the enzyme that is targeted by HIV drugs has two magnesium ions and if something else binds to these ions the virus cannot complete its life cycle. Another thing that I learned was that drugs are active in the system longer than would be expected based off of the frequency the drug is taken. One of the things about this particular seminar that was pleasing to me was that some of the material presented I had previously learned about in my medicinal chemistry class. This helped give me a better understanding of the objective that Dr. Johns and his team where trying to achieve. If I were to describe this lecture I would say that it was a descripting of the drug development process using an HIV inhibitor as a model drug.Once again this was a very enjoyable and interesting seminar which not only showed the students the drug discovery process but showed them what kinds of things they can do after leaving Andrews.
