At the MCG open house, from left, UMSL Chancellor Tom George; Peter Ruminski, executive director of Center for World Health and Medicine at SLU; John Walker, director of MCG; Raymond Tait, vice president for research at SLU; Jason Hall, executive director of MTC; and Nasser Arshadi, vice provost of research at UMSL.

The Medicinal Chemistry Group held an open house last week at the University of Missouri–St. Louis’ ITE where their lab is located. Representatives from the Missouri Technology Corporation, the Coalition for Plant and Life Sciences, St. Louis University, Biogenerator and others joined the group of about 50 people for a presentation and tour of the facilities.

“We could not be more proud to support MCG,” said Jason Hall, executive director of MTC, a public-private partnership created by the Missouri General Assembly to promote entrepreneurship and foster the growth of new and emerging high-tech companies. “MTC is excited to be one of the first financial supporters of the group.”

Donn Rubin, executive director of the Coalition of Plant Sciences in St. Louis, said MCG adds to a world-class bioscience cluster in the region.

“We are so pleased UMSL stepped up and coordinated their efforts to keep this expertise in the region,” Rubin told attendees.

MCG, which is a part of the Center for Nanoscience at UMSL, is operated by a group of former Pfizer scientists led by John Walker. Current projects include “work on orphaned and neglected diseases like river blindness and childhood diarrhea in conjunction with the Center for World Health & Medicine at Saint Louis University,” said Walker, who is director of the MCG.

In addition to UMSL’s support, grants from St. Louis Life Sciences Project, the St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment and MTC have helped to jump start MCG’s operations, as have contributions of equipment and supplies provided by Pfizer, Monsanto and Sigma Aldrich.