The "Prous Institute-Overton and Meyer Award for New Technologies in Drug Discovery" was established to encourage innovation and investigation in technologies related to drug discovery. The Award is given biennially to acknowledge the discovery, evaluation or use of a new technology, and consists of a diploma, € 7.500 and an invitation to present a lecture at an EFMC-ISMC symposium.

Previous recipients were: Prof. Klaus Müller in 2010, Prof. V. Ley in 2008, Prof. D. Neri in 2006 and Prof. C.O. Kappe in 2004.

Dr. Harren Jhoti
Astex Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, UK

To encourage innovation and investigation in technological development related to drug discovery, the EFMC awards the Prous Institute – Overton and Meyer Prize to the author of discovery, evaluation or use of new technologies.

The EFMC is pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2012 Prous Institute-Overton and Meyer Award for outstanding achievements in the field of New Technologies in Drug Discovery is Dr. Harren Jhoti.

This award acknowledges Dr. Jhoti’s pioneering research which has led to the development and successful application of fragment-based lead finding strategies in drug discovery, an approach which is now widely and increasingly used throughout the pharmaceutical industry and  in academia. The brilliant results achieved by Dr. Jhoti are documented in more than 60 publications. Dr. Jhoti is not only a highly creative scientist, but also an accomplished entrepreneur whose work has culminated in the foundation of Astex, a Biotech company which has developed 6 fragment-derived compounds into clinical trials so far.

Prof Klaus Müller, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Winner of the 2010 Prous Institute-Overton and Meyer Award for New Technologies in Drug Discovery

For his pioneering work in the field of computer assisted molecular modeling and for his seminal contributions to the understanding of multipolar interactions and fluorine effects in protein-ligand interactions. Prof. Müller has been instrumental in implementing and further developing computational techniques for use in the drug discovery and development process both through his leading role in pharmaceutical industry and his teaching activities in academia.

Prof. Steven V. Ley, Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Winner of the 2008 Prous Institute-Overton and Meyer Award for New Technologies in Drug Discovery

This award acknowledges Professor Ley commitment to the development, discovery, evaluation and use of new technologies for drug discovery. These include early adoption of ultrasound and microwave techniques for chemical synthesis, the use of design of experiment software for reaction optimization, the multi-step use of immobilised reagents, scavengers and catch and release concepts, the generation of encapsulated catalysts for cleaner reaction processing, the use of immobilised enzymes in synthesis, and the impressive advances in the area of flow chemistry and micro reactor technology. The brilliant results achieved by Prof. Ley, documented by over 630 publications in the area of new synthetic methods and their application to biologically active molecules, give him a great visibility in the field of medicinal chemistry and drug discovery.

Professor Neri receives this award for his pioneering work establishing synthetic antibody libraries obtained employing phage display technology. Although this technology is still in its early stages, it holds significant potential for the discovery of new LMW binders to variety of protein targets.

The Prous Science Award for New Technologies in Drug Discovery 2004 for Prof. C. Oliver Kappe

The award was granted to Prof. C. Oliver Kappe, Karl-Franzens University, Graz, on the basis of his outstanding scientific curriculum vitae. In particular, his work on microwave-assisted combinatorial chemistry was considered highly innovative and fruitful.

The Award was presented during the Opening Session of the XVIIIth International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry, on Sunday, August 15, in Copenhagen, Denmark.