Like Farrar, Boeckman performs very basic research. He is an organic chemist who has devoted his research career to developing new tools that pharmaceutical companies can use in the discovery and development of new drugs. The preparation of drugs usually involves dozens of steps, and chemists try to exert precise control over all of them to produce a molecule that won't have harmful side effects. Boeckman's specialty is the 3-D design of complex organic molecules, whose shape is the key to their ability to bind to and affect other molecules. For the development of new drugs, scientists need a variety of chemical tools.
Most people have several screwdrivers, each with a specific purpose.
With funding from the National Institutes of Health and several pharmaceutical companies, Boeckman tests out his new tools on particularly challenging or important compounds including antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs, and drugs to help prevent organ rejection. His group is now trying to make a drug that is used to prevent rejection in kidney transplants more quickly, less expensively, and with less toxicity. A graduate of Carnegie Institute of Technology and Brandeis University, Boeckman has won several awards and is a frequent consultant to the pharmaceutical industry. He has trained dozens of chemists, most of whom are now working in industry. Boeckman came to the University in 1980 from Wayne State University, where he was a chemistry professor.