Drug Discovery Chemistry Platform Unit

Pursuing small molecule drug discovery and targeted protein degradation

Unit Leader

Hiroo Koyama Ph.D.

1987: Ph.D., Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo
1987: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
1990: New Lead Research Laboratories, Sankyo, Co. Ltd.
1991: Senior Research Fellow, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Merck Research Laboratories, USA
2010: Principal Scientist, Chemistry, PTC Therapeutics Inc., USA
2013: Senior Research Scientist, Drug Discovery Chemistry Platform Unit, RIKEN Center for Molecular Imaging Science
2013: Platform Unit Leader, Drug Discovery Chemistry Platform Unit, RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies
2018: Unit Leader, Drug Discovery Chemistry Platform Unit, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (-current)

Main Research Fields :	Chemistry
Related Research Fields :	Medicine, Dentistry & Pharmacy
Keywords :	Drug discovery / Medicinal chemistry / Pharmacokinetics optimization
Strategic Program :	Drug Discovery Platforms Cooperation Division

Outline

As a part of RIKEN’s drug discovery effort, we specialize in medicinal chemistry and our research covers 1) validation of therapeutic targets by small molecular probe, 3) targeted protein degradation, and 3) development of chemistry-based innovative therapeutics in collaboration with the computational chemistry and structural biology groups in RIKEN. We take advantages of AI-based ADMET optimization and activity prediction supported by structural biological data for our hit-to-lead and lead optimization. Currently, our effort is focused on therapeutic areas with high unmet medical needs including rare genetic diseases and neurodegenerative diseases.