EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE | December 01, 2009

Dennis C. Liotta named editor of American Chemical Society’s ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2009 — Dennis C. Liotta, Ph.D., Director of the Emory Institute for Drug Discovery, Emory University, Atlanta, has been named Editor-in-Chief of the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) journal, ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters. The new, international, peer-reviewed journal will deliver the most urgent, cutting edge research in medicinal chemistry.

ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters will provide a forum for the rapid communication of important experimental and theoretical results in all aspects of medicinal chemistry (pure and applied) and its extension into pharmacology. It will publish studies ranging from compound discovery and design to optimization, biological evaluation, drug delivery and pharmacology. The journal will also highlight technology innovations of interest to medicinal chemists.

Delivered exclusively via ACS’ award-winning Web Editions Platform, ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters will meet the needs of a broad range of scientists from industry, academia and government. With articles posting in January 2010 and the first issue to follow in April 2010, ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters will complement the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, the most cited journal in the field. The journal will serve as a comprehensive source for late breaking medicinal chemistry research enhanced by direct links to SciFinder® “Get Substances” and “Get Reactions” and seamless linking to the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

A professor of organic chemistry at Emory University, Liotta is a renowned medicinal chemist with extensive experience in multidisciplinary research and collaborations across industry and academia. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the recipient of many distinguished fellowships. Among these are fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

His current research is focused on the discovery and development of novel antiviral, anticancer and anti-inflammatory therapeutic agents. Together with colleagues, Liotta was responsible for the discovery of the breakthrough HIV drugs 3TC and FTC, which are part of the majority of AIDS combination therapies used today. He also has a long, distinguished history with ACS, serving as a member of the executive committee of the Division of Organic Chemistry and as chairman of the Georgia Local Section.

Liotta is the founder and advisory board member of several companies, including iThemba Pharmaceuticals, a privately held South African drug discovery company. He also was a consultant to major pharmaceutical firms, including GlaxoSmithKline, Burroughs Wellcome, Boehringer Ingelheim and the R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute.

He has written more than 200 research publications and patents. His research articles have been published in a broad range of publications, including but not limited to, ACS journals such as Journal of the American Chemical Society, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Biochemistry, Journal of Organic Chemistry and Organic Letters.

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