Yvonne Connolly Martin facts for kids

Yvonne Connolly Martin (born September 13, 1936) is an American expert in using computers to design new medicines. She became a top research scientist at Abbott Laboratories, which is now called AbbVie.

Yvonne Martin studied chemistry at Northwestern University. She became a leader in teamwork aimed at finding and creating new molecules that can become medicines. Her work helped us understand how the shape and properties of molecules affect what they do in the body.

She wrote an important book called Quantitative Drug Design (2nd Ed., 2010). She has also won many awards in her field. For example, she was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1985. She also became a fellow of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry in 2000. She received the Herman Skolnik Award in 2009 and the Award for Computers in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research in 2017 from the American Chemical Society.

Early Life and Education

Yvonne Connolly was born in 1936. Her parents were Irene and Elvert Connolly.

In 1958, Martin earned her bachelor's degree from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. She was the only woman in her year to major in chemistry and zoology. From 1958 to 1960, she worked at Abbott Labs as a pharmacology assistant.

She received a special scholarship from the National Science Foundation from 1960 to 1963. During this time, she studied at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She earned her Ph.D. in physical biochemistry from Northwestern University in 1964.

Career Highlights

Yvonne Martin's career has mostly been with Abbott Laboratories. This part of Abbott Labs focused on finding new medicines before they were tested on people. This division later became a separate pharmaceutical company called AbbVie.

Martin worked at Abbott and AbbVie for over forty years. She only took one year off, from 1967 to 1968. During that year, she worked with Corwin Hansch at Pomona College. Hansch was a pioneer in QSAR, a method for predicting how chemicals act. After this, she returned to Abbott Laboratories.

She officially retired as a senior research fellow in 2006. However, she has continued to work with Abbott Laboratories as a consultant. She also taught as a visiting professor at the University of Virginia.

Research and Discoveries

Martin's work with Corwin Hansch led to her ongoing research in QSAR. QSAR stands for Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship. It's a way to predict how a chemical will act based on its structure. She used computers to create 2D and 3D models. These models showed the chemical and biological features of molecules.

She was one of the first to use computational chemistry for drug design. She helped develop methods like combinatorial chemistry and molecular graphics. Combinatorial chemistry involves making many different molecules at once. Molecular graphics lets scientists see molecules on a computer screen.

She also helped create computer programs like DISCO and ALADDIN. These programs help find the key parts of molecules needed for them to work. Her work has greatly influenced how new drugs are discovered today. It has supported the computer design of new chemical compounds.

Martin has focused on finding out which properties of molecules are important for their biological activity. This includes how strong they are, how well they bind to targets, and how the body handles them (ADME properties). Her methods have been used to study many diseases. These include hypertension (high blood pressure), Parkinson's disease, ulcers, bacterial infections, arthritis, and angina (chest pain).

She has also helped create collections of compounds and libraries of molecules. Researchers use these to compare how similar or different molecules are. Her collection of MAO (monoamine oxidase) inhibitors has been widely used by other scientists.

Other Activities

In 1989, Martin helped start the International Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship & Modeling Society. This group is now called the QSAR, Chemoinformatics and Modeling Society. She was a board member and led the organization from 2001 to 2005.

Published Works

Besides over a hundred scientific papers, Yvonne Martin has written or edited six books. One of her most important books is her textbook on Quantitative Drug Design.

She has also worked as an editor for several journals. These include Perspectives in Drug Design and Discovery, QSAR: Annual Reports in Computational Chemistry, Journal of Computer-Aided Drug Design, and QSAR & Combinatorial Science. She holds eight patents for her inventions. She is also listed in the World directory of crystallographers.

Awards and Honors

• 2024, Alfred Burger Award in Medicinal Chemistry from the American Chemical Society
• 2017, Award for Computers in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research from the American Chemical Society
• 2013, Alumni Association Award from Carleton College
• 2009, Herman Skolnik Award from the American Chemical Society
• 2005, Society for Biomolecular Screening Accomplishment Award
• 2000, fellow, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)
• 1985, fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• Lifetime member of the Molecular Modeling and Graphics Society (MMGS)
• American Crystallographic Association (ACA)

Personal Life

Yvonne Martin is married to William Brady Martin. He is a chemistry professor at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois. They have two children.