Hello Newbies [with Organic Synthesis background] to Medicinal Chemistry field: Steps for newbies to medicinal chemistry

Many questions like 'Where to start?', 'How to start?' arise as a newbie to any field.  Medicinal chemistry is no different.  To be frank I am still educating  myself to understand this field.  I am not going to teach or provide any lecture notes here.  However, by following these posts you might end-up understanding how to approach medicinal chemistry projects, different steps involved in the project i.e. starting from initiation towards progress of the project to next levels.

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The most important barrier for the newbies to the medicinal chemistry field is ‘confusion’.  The kind of questions lingering in the minds might be one of these 

– should I first read biology text books 

– should I first read the underlying cause for the disease we are working on 

– should I first read the basics of the therapeutic area we are currently working on 

– should I first concentrate on the relevant biological target of interest 

– should I first read ----- goes on and on.

Let us get out of this confusion.  Try to pursue the following method which will make you feel comfortable, relaxed and confident towards escalating your interest towards this field.

Step 1: Learn to read the biological data [terminology usage] – This is the first and foremost step which everyone has to understand at the earliest.

Step 2: Literature on the biological target you are working on

Step 3: therapeutic area basics, biology related portions.

Step 2 and 3 can be performed simultaneously with Step 1