This intensive course is intended for scientists working in the field, and the presentations will be given by senior scientists from industry and academia. The number of participants is limited to 35, to allow in depth discussion. Should the number of applications exceed the maximum, preference will be given to applicants from EFMC adhering countries and employees of EFMC corporate members. Upon special request to the organisers, only based on financial conditions and supported by an argued recommendation of the head of the department of the applicant, up to 3 applicants from academia may be admitted at a reduced fee.

Course Outline

Peptides are a gigantic class of bioactive compounds, offering an immense chemical diversity as well as the potential for finding and characterizing new targets and also for developing non-peptidic ‘analogues’. However, the development of peptides into clinically useful pharmaceuticals is full of challenges including their pharmacokinetic  properties (short biological half-life, lack of oral bioavailability, difficulties to reach intracellular or intranuclear targets) as well as their conformational flexibility which may cause reduced affinity and selectivity. However, recent developments in discovery, manufacturing and formulation, as well as in preclinical and clinical development, has triggered a lasting resurrection of pharmaceutical interest in peptide therapeutics.

This EFMC seminar will bring together enthusiastic, approachable experts, both from academia and industry, on selected hot aspects in the discovery and development of peptide therapeutics. Real life examples and interactive discussions will give the participants a unique opportunity to learn in a short time how the challenges in peptide therapeutics can be handled and overcome.

Course Organiser
Bart DE SPIEGELEER (Ghent University, Belgium)
Local Organiser
Henk TIMMERMAN (VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Contact person: Prof. Dr. Henk Timmerman
Tel: +31 71 5762791

1st EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry - Improving Compound Quality
March 22-25, 2009
Organised by Han van den Waterbeemd and Henk Timmerman

2nd EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry - Safety and Attrition
April 11-14, 2010
Organised by Alan Stobie and Henk Timmerman

3rd EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry - Principles and Applications of in vitro Pharmacology in Drug Discovery for Medicinal Chemists
April 10-13, 2011
Organised by Mike Trevethick and Henk Timmerman

4th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry - Safety and Attrition
December 7-9, 2012
Organised by Alan Stobie and Henk Timmerman

5th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry - Target Selection through Application of Chemical and Systems Biology
April 1-4, 2012
Organised by Thomas Klabunde, Brian Harms and Henk Timmerman

6th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry - Improving Compound Quality: Physical Chemistry and DMPK Properties in Drug Discovery. Principles, Assays and Predictions
October 21-24, 2012
Organised by Kevin Beaumont and Henk Timmerman

7th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry: "Principles of Molecular Recognition"
April 21-24, 2013
Organised by George Keseru and Henk Timmerman

8th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry - Engineering of Biopharmaceuticals
March 16-19, 2014
Organised by Jesper Lau and Henk Timmerman

9th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry - Principles of Molecular Recognition
October 26-29, 2014
Organised by George Keseru, Andrew Leach and Henk Timmerman

10th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry - Small-Molecule Modulation of Protein-Protein Interactions (PPIs)
April 12-15, 2015
Organised by Luc Brunsveld, Christian Ottman and Henk Timmerman

11th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry - Engineering of Biopharmaceuticals - Cancelled
September 27-30, 2015
Organised by Jesper Lau and Henk Timmerman

12th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry - Modulation of Enzymes; Epigenetics and Beyond
April 24-27, 2016
Organised by Gerhard Müller, Anita Wegert and Henk Timmerman

13th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry - A Matter of Time; A Kinetic Perspective on Drug-Target Interactions
April 23-26, 2017
Organised by Ad Ijzerman, Laura Heitman and Henk Timmerman