TheAdrien Albert Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry

Department of Pharmacology, The University of Sydney,Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

 

Awards, Prizes and Publicity (updated 25 November 2008)
Current Research (updated 4 July2007)
Photos
Projects Available for PhD and HonoursStudents
Publications (updated 13 May 2009)
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Research Grants and Contracts (updated 10 February 2009)
Source Material on Adrien Albert (updated 1 October 2008)
Staff and Students (updated 5 January2007)

DrugDesign Amongst the Vines, Hunter Valley, 3-7 December 2006 (PDF 1.4MB)

6thAustralia/Japan Symposium on Drug Design and Development, Sydney27-30 June 2004 (PDF1.7 MB)

The Adrien Albert Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry was named afterthe late Adrien Albert,who establishedmedicinal chemistry in Australia and was the author of many importantbooks including Selective Toxicity.  Adrien Albert worked in thelaboratory, now named after him, in the 1940s when he was an advisoron medical chemistry to the Medical Directorate of the AustralianArmy.  While in Sydney, Albert did his pioneering work onacridines including large scale syntheses of the acridineantimalarial, mepacrine and the acridine antiseptic, proflavine. With Walter Gledhill, he published the first synthesis of thecompound now known as Tacrine, the firstagent to be approved for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

The Laboratory's expertise is in the medicinal chemistry,neurochemistry and neuropharmacology of the amino acidneurotransmitters GABA and glutamate, and of ATP-gated potassiumchannels.  The Laboratory has projects involving the design,synthesis and evaluation of new chemical entities as investigationaland as therapeutic agents. The major target disorders includeAlzheimer's disease, anxiety disorders, diabetes epilepsy andschizophrenia.

The Adrien Albert Laboratory was to be officially opened by Albertin January 1990, when he was to have been presented with the RoyalAustralian Chemical Insitute's Ollé Prize in Sydney for hislast book 'Xenobiosis: Food, Drugs and Poisons in the Human Body'. Unfortunately, his health suddenly deteriorated and he died inCanberra on 29 December 1989.  As he fell ill, he learned alsothat he had been awarded a DSc (honoris causa) from the University ofSydney.  This degree was conferred posthumously in March 1990. Albert's remarkable scientific career, after graduating fromthe University of Sydney with a BSc (First Class Honours inChemistry) and the University Medal in 1932, continued right up tohis death. His great contributions to medicinal chemistry inAustralia have been commemorated by the naming after him of theAdrien Albert Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry at the University ofSydney and by the RoyalAustralian Chemical Institute's Division of Medicinal andAgricultural Chemistry (now the RACI Division of Biomolecular Chemistry) naming its most distinguished award,The Adrien Albert Award. The Royal Society of Chemistry in theUK have instituted an Adrien Albert Lectureship, while theAustralian National University has established an Adrien AlbertPrize for chemistry honours students.

The Adrien Albert Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry is the centreof an integrated drug design and development unit with particularexpertise in:

  • computer aided drug design;
  • chemical synthesis;
  • pharmacological assessment of drug action;
  • molecular biology of cloned receptors and transporters; and
  • in vivo assessment of animal behaviour and acute toxicity.

Opportunities exist in the Laboratory for collaborative industrialR&D projects that offer high intellectual interest for universityresearchers, together with unique entry-level commercialopportunities for investors and industrial partners leading topatentable new chemical entities.

Further Information

Please contact either:

Associate Professor Robin Allan
The Adrien Albert Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry
Department of Pharmacology, D06
The University of Sydney
NSW 2006 Australia

Phone/voice mail (within Australia) 02 9351 3443; Fax (withinAustralia) 02 9351 3868
Phone/voice mail (outside Australia) 61 92 351 3443; Fax(outside Australia) 61 2 9351 3868
E-mail r_allan@pharmacol.usyd.edu.au

or

Professor Graham Johnston
The Adrien Albert Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry
Department of Pharmacology, D06
The University of Sydney
NSW 2006 Australia

Phone/voice mail (within Australia) 02 9351 6117; Fax (withinAustralia) 02 9351 3868
Phone/voice mail (outside Australia) 61 2 9351 6117; Fax(outside Australia) 61 2 9351 3868
E-mail grahamj@mail.usyd.edu.au

Last updated on 13 May 2009

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