He will receive the 2001 E.B. Hershberg Award for Important Discoveries in Medicinally Active Substances from the American Chemical Society at its 221st national meeting in San Diego. Ojima, chairman of the chemistry department at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, said his research originally focused on developing peptides, or small proteins, to treat conditions such as high blood pressure and blood clots. Ojima developed a method to synthesize taxol in the laboratory and is now working on second-generation drugs called taxoids.
Drug resistance is a problem too.
Structural changes Ojima's team made allowed absorption by the intestines as well as more potency in killing resistant tumors. The synthetic organic chemist has also teamed up with Boston-based ImmunoGen to attach the taxoid to monoclonal antibodies. So far the approach is promising in animal tests, he added. A native of Japan, Ojima said his early interest in research was sparked by his father, an inorganic chemist. Ojima received his undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Tokyo in 1968 and 1973.