Philip S. Portoghese

Philip Salvatore Portoghese (born June 4, 1931) is an American medicinal chemist who has made notable contributions to the design and synthesis of ligands targeting opioid receptors. He is a Distinguished Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He also served as the Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry from 1972 to 2012, when the job was taken on by his departmental colleague, Gunda I. Georg, who shares the Editor-in-chief position with Shaomeng Wang at the University of Michigan.

Portoghese was born on June 4, 1931 in Brooklyn, New York. He received a B.S. in pharmacy at Columbia University and then went on to obtain an M.S. degree in physical pharmacy in 1958. He continued his graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and obtained a Ph.D in pharmaceutical chemistry under the mentorship of Edward E. Smissman in 1961. He joined the faculty of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at University of Minnesota in 1961, where he has served with distinction for over five decades. He is known internationally for designing several opioid ligands including β-funaltrexamine, naltrindole, norbinaltorphimine, and naltriben. He has pioneered the use of bivalent ligands to target opioid receptor complexes called heteromers. He was honored in 2011 for 50 years of exemplary academic service by the University of Minnesota. In 2007, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Medicinal Chemistry. Portoghese served as Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry from 1972 to 2012, making him one of the longest standing editors of an ACS journal.