The Institute of Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry

The Institute of Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry (IOPC) was established in 1979 as ''Center for Organic Chemistry'' with the aim of pursuing research in the areas of Organic and Organometallic Chemistry. Later, the Institute's research activities were extended to the direction of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and in 1989 it was renamed to ''Institute of Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry''.

In January 2003, a new activity in the field of Structural Biology and Chemistry, with an emphasis on structure-based drug design, was incorporated into IOPC. The ongoing research activities of IOPC are carried out by five research groups, which are in close collaboration with each other for achieving the goal of the Institute (the structure of IOPC is shown below), which is the development of high-caliber basic scientific research with potential applications in the fields of Organic, Organometallic chemistry and Catalysis, Pharmaceutical chemistry, Structural Biology/Chemistry, Computational chemistry and Molecular Analysis.

Integral part of the Institute's activities is the training of young scientists in undergraduate, post-graduate and post-doctoral level, the development of new knowledge with applications in life and material sciences, services to third parties and the transfer of knowledge to Research Institutes, Universities, Industries both in national and international level. The personnel employed in IOPC totals 76 persons, out of which 13 are scientific-research staff, 2 functional scientists, 1 scientific technician, 4 technicians, 1 secretary, 18 post-doctoral fellows, 28 MSc and PhD students and 6 undergraduate students, and 2 emeritus researchers.

IOPC has been awarded Excellence in Research on ''Novel strategies against neurodegeneration (2002-2005) by the Greek General Secretariat of Research and Technology, and recently has been awarded a grant of €1.125.000 for infrastructure on ''Design and Synthesis of Bioactive Molecules'' (2005-2008) by the Greek Ministry of Development.

The structure of IOPC is shown below: