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Medicinal Chemistry

Available as a concentration

Medicinal Chemistry will help you develop an in-depth understanding of how drugs are developed -— the creative science behind taking an idea to a successful therapeutic molecule.

As a medicinal chemistry student, you'll have opportunities to learn in the lab and firsthand in pharmaceutical companies. Connections between professors, alumni and the industry help place you in summer internships in pharmaceutical companies — experience giving you a critical leg up in grad school or job applications. Roanoke students gain a distinct advantage of experiences usually reserved for graduate-level students.

Curriculum & Courses

Sample Course Offerings

CHEM 221: Organic Chemistry I 
CHEM 340: Pharmaceutical Chemistry 
CHEM 350: Instrumental Analysis 

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Learn by Doing

We offer many firsthand learning opportunities for our students. 

  • Research Opportunities

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    Roanoke students are encouraged to test their ideas through meaningful research from their very first course in chemistry — often using the type of advanced equipment that other schools reserve exclusively for graduate student

  • Internship Opportunities

    The Roanoke College Chemistry Department encourages students to pursue educational experiences off campus, working in various area industries. Past internships have included work in a hospital clinical laboratory, an environmental analysis laboratory, a crime lab, and cosmetics quality control laboratories.

  • Carilion Scholars

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    Carilion Scholars is a workforce development program that offers students a direct pipeline to rewarding careers in health care. Through a partnership with Carilion Clinic, Roanoke College juniors get exclusive opportunities for hands-on, paid internships in Carilion's leading hospital facilities. 

  • Community

    Chemistry Magic Show

    Students and faculty here work together to provide the support, direction and opportunity that makes great science possible.

Hands-on learning

Students working on a chemistry lab
Students with their professor during a lab
Student working on a laptop during a lab
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Student working on a lab
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Student working on a chemistry lab
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Dr. Johann's office door
Three students working on a lab

Careers & Outcomes

Kristen Clare: Pharmaceutical regulatory strategist

Kristen Clare '10, a biochemistry major, found her passion for medicinal chemistry at Roanoke, where she worked as a student research assistant and presented her findings on the active site of the enzyme 5,10-methenyltetrahydrofolate synthetase at the Mid-Atlantic Conference for Undergraduate Scholarship in 2008. She also co-authored a paper, "Investigations of Amino Acids in the ATP Binding Site of 5,10-Methenyltetrahydrofolate Synthetase", in The Protein Journal. She followed this up with an undergraduate internship in the Biochemical Discovery Biology Department at Merck.

After Roanoke, Kristen received an MS in Biopharmaceutical Regulatory Science from Northeastern University and tackled a graduate internship in worldwide regulatory strategy at Pfizer. She held positions at Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Takeda Oncology. Currently, she is a regulatory affairs director at Alkermes, responsible for developing and executing strategies to support early CNS development programs and marketed products. 

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News

Interested in studying medicinal chemistry at Roanoke College?

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