Department of Chemistry. The Centre for Chemico- and Biomedicinal Research (CCBR) is a collaborative enterprise at Rhodes that is hosted in the Department of Chemistry, but includes people from several other disciplines and institutions. Researchers in CCBR are engaged in collaborative projects with clear medicinal emphases including:- i) Medical Research Council (MRC)-sponsored projects on the development of novel HIV-1 protease and integrase inhibitors; ii) MRC-SHIP projects on the development of anti-malarial compounds iii) Model compounds for anti-tuberculosis lead development iv) Anti-cancer compounds v) Metal complexes for anti-malarial treatment vi) Drug-delivery systems These and other ongoing programmes constitute a solid basis for focussing research efforts and maximising productivity. The Centre for Chemico- and Biomedicinal Research is expected to provide an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to the discovery and development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of diseases that currently ravage sub-Saharan Africa. The need for highly specific enzyme inhibitors is a focus common to all three of the “tropical” diseases being addressed, and it is intended that the relevant projects will each embrace multi-disciplinary investigations involving:- i) X-ray crystallographic and/or NMR structural analysis of enzymes (if not known) and structurally modified enzymes; ii) computer-modelling of enzymes, identification of receptor sites and computer-assisted rational drug design; iii) total synthesis of potential inhibitors and isolation of natural products; iv) expression of relevant enzymes; v) elucidation of drug-receptor interactions by means of in silico docking and in vitro enzyme inhibition studies, and NMR and, where appropriate, X-ray crystallographic analyses of enzyme-inhibitor complexes; vi) quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR) studies to feed back into the design of more effective inhibitors. https://www.ru.ac.za/chemistry/centreforchemicoandbiomedicinalresearch/