Opioid Research Group

Helmut SCHMIDHAMMER
ao. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr.
Institute of Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Chemistry
University of Innsbruck
Center for Chemistry and Biomedicine
Innrain 80 - 82/III
Room: L.03.132
6020 Innsbruck / Austria
e-mail: helmut.schmidhammer@uibk.ac.at
phone: +43-512-507-58248
fax: +43-512-507-58299
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8752-5050
1965 - 1972
University of Innsbruck, Austria, Study of Pharmacy (M.Sc.)
1972 - 1975
Ph.D. Thesis, Institute of Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Innsbruck (Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry)
1976 - 1985
Assistant Professor, Institute of Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Innsbruck
1980 - 1982
Visting Scientist at the Section on Medicinal Chemistry, Laboratory of Chemistry, NIDDK, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
1985
Associate Professor (Medicinal Chemistry), Institute of Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Innsbruck
1994 - 1995
Visiting Professor, Astra Montreal Research Centre, Laval, Quebec, Canada
01/2000 bis 03/2010
Head of the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Institute of Pharmacy, University of Innsbruck, Austria
1993 - 2011
Head of the “Opioid Research Group” at the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Institute of Pharmacy, University of Innsbruck, Austria
Since 2001
Commitee member the "Georg und Christine Sosnovsky-Preis" of the Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck
Since 2004
Scientific Member of the Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University of Innsbruck, Austria
Awards and honors
1974
Biochemie-Kundl Award
1986
Christian-Doppler Award of the Province of Salzburg
1986
Herba Award of the Herby Apotheker AG, Vienna
2001
Award for the best business plan for Tyrol (Austria) at the International Business Plan Competition “Best of Biotech (BOB)”, Vienna, Austria
2003
Winner (third place) in the Business Plan Competition “Adventure X”, Innsbruck, Austria
2003
Winner (first place) in the Business Plan Competition “Science4Life Venture Cup 2003”, Frankfurt a. M., Germany
Research topics
- Development of potential drugs - Highly potent opioid analgesics - Drugs for the treatment of addiction (opioid, cocaine and alcohol) – Immunosuppressive drugs - Drugs for the treatment of ileus and inflammatory bowel diseases
- Synthesis of 14-alkoxymorphinans – mu, delta and kappa opioid receptor selective opioid agonists and antagonists as pharmacological tools
- Synthetical investigations on opium alkaloids (e.g. thebaine, codeine, noscapine)
- Improvement of synthetical procedures in drug development
- Structure-activity relationship studies on newly developed compounds
Methodologies
- Organic chemical methods
- Medicinal chemistry methods
- Structure elucidation (NMR, IR, MS)
- Determination of pka, logP, logD
Research projects and grants (Recent funding)
2000 - 2005 European Community EU-5FP (QLRT-1999-02234)
Opioid Treatment of Chronic Pain and Inflammation of the Locomotor System
2000 - 2005 Ministry of Education, Science and Culture
Opioid Treatment of Chronic Pain and Inflammation of the Locomotor System
2002 - 2006 Austrian Science Fund FWF P15481
Novel Therapies of Chronic Pain: Peripherally Acting 14-Alkoxymorphinen Derivatives
2003 - 2004 CAST
BioMare
2004- 2005 Universität Innsbruck
Peripherally Acting Analgesics
2004 - 2008 AlcaSynn Pharmaceuticals GmbH
AlcaSynn_1
2005 - 2006 Tyrolean Science Fund 0404/140
New Therapies for Chronic Pain
2009 - 2012 Austrian Science Fund FWF P21350
Peripheral Opioid Receptors, a Target for Gut Diseases
2010 - 2013 Austrian Science Fund FWF TRP16-B18
Novel Opioid Antagonists for Bowel Motility Disorders
2011 - 2012 Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy Prize 2010
Development of New Opioid Analgesics with Reduced Side Effects
Publications in Pubmed