Prospective Students (read closely as things have changed)
Prospective graduate students may apply here:
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Click on “apply to the graduate school” and follow links
- Medicinal Chemistry OR Pharmacology/Toxicology program
- List Andrew Wiemer as advisor choice 1
- Preference will be given to self-funded MS or PhD applicants, be sure to email Prof. Wiemer
- For those requiring assistantship, preference will be given to applicants with a master’s degree and first author papers
- No assistantships are currently available, pending additional funding.
Pharmacy students or undergraduate students interested in working on literature reviews may send a resume or transcript to andrew.wiemer@uconn.edu.
- Openings are available. Typically, a 4-semester commitment.
Undergraduate students interested in experimental research (typically from MCB, PNB, or BIO) may send a resume or transcript to andrew.wiemer@uconn.edu.
- No openings at this time.
Projects
1. Discovery of novel cancer and immunology therapeutics.
Underlying all our projects is a goal to discover and characterize novel therapeutic agents. Here, we use cutting-edge chemical and biological screening and structure-based drug design to identify new biologically active molecules. Specific projects focus on immune receptors, adhesion molecules, and metabolic enzymes.
2. Butyrophilin ligands as cancer immunotherapies.
T cells play critical roles in human diseases including cancer immunosurveillance. By developing novel compounds that activate or inhibit T cell functions, we aim to gain understanding of their activation mechanisms and how they can function to control development of cancer. Our most advanced project in this area focuses on butyrophilin agonists and their impacts the anti-cancer immune response.
3. Novel prodrugs and drug conjugates.
Many potential drug molecules show promising biological activity but reach limitations to their clinical use. Through developing prodrug forms or conjugated forms, the properties of these molecules can be improved. Specific projects in the lab focus on development of phosphonate prodrugs and exploration of peptide-small molecule conjugates.