News from the Societies

Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development Prize For Medicinal Chemistry

To Dr. Debby Feytens for her PhD thesis entitled “Synthesis of spirocyclic 4-amino-2-benzazepin-3-ones and 4-amino-indolo[2,3-c]azepin-3-one analogs and their use in bioactive peptides and mimetics” (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, promotorProf. D. Tourwé)
The Royal Flemish Chemical Society KVCV, Division of Medicinal and Bioorganic chemistry awarded for the 12th time a prize for a young PhD researcher who performed promising research at a Flemish University in the domain of medicinal chemistry.
Candidates needed to have obtained their PhD between November 1, 2007 and October 31, 2009.

A jury consisting of Prof. P. Herdewijn (K.U.Leuven), Dr. P. Ten Holte (J&J PRD), Prof. D. Tourwé (VUB), Prof. S. Van Calenbergh (UGent) and Prof. K. Augustyns (chair, UA) chose Debby Feytens as the prize winner.

 

Short Curriculum Vitae
Debby Feytens graduated at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and obtained the PhD degree at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2009, with Prof. D. Tourwé as promoter. During the PhD she performed research stays at Bioquadrant in Montreal and at the University of Brisbane. Currently she is a post-doctoral fellow of the FWO-Vlaanderen and stays at the University Paris VI. She is the author of 11 publications.

 

Short summary of the PhD research
Methods were developed to conformationally constrain the structure of the amino acids Phe and Trp into an azepinone ring. These building blocks were used to prepare modified peptides and peptide mimetics. Somatostatin mimetics were obtained which were higly potent and either selective for one of the subtype receptors, or were universal ligands for all subtypes. The developed solid-phase protocol allows an easy introduction of the contrained Trp residue into a variety of peptide sequences, such as growth hormone secretagogues.

 

 

As part of the Industry & Technology Forum, the BMCS aims to further the interests of members of the RSC, both industrial and academic, who are involved in the pursuit and understanding of biologically active molecules. The predominant areas of interest to our members include pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, flavours, and fragrances.
It also acts to promote public awareness of the crucial role played by chemistry in the modern industrial environment. The BMCS seeks to achieve these objectives by the organisation of scientific meetings and symposia, support for educational activities in the UK, and advising the RSC on policies that directly affect the BMCS members.
One of the main activities of the BMCS is to organise conferences of interest to scientists involved in life sciences research, often in collaboration with other key learned societies. Recent examples can be found on our web-site (www.rsc.org/bmcs) that include the 15th RSC/SCI Medicinal Chemistry conference, Churchill College in Cambridge and the 3rd BMCS PG symposium in Biological and Medicinal Chemistry. The BMCS also supports chemistry education and outreach activities through its Education Support Group (ESG). The ESG supports enhanced equipment for schools, chemistry after-school clubs, and out-reach activities and has created an educational CD for school and college distribution. In 2007 it also provided funding for the University Ambassador Scheme, which takes undergraduates into the secondary school sector to home their skills and to get comprehension of teaching. BMCS support for the UAS Scheme has doubled both the number of university chemistry departments undertaking the course and the number of undergraduate students that take a UAS course. Why not join us when you renew your RSC membership-tick the BMCS box!

BMCS Malcolm Campbell Award 2009
The 2009 Malcolm Campbell Award was presented to Dr LWL Woo and Prof BVL Potter from the University of Bath and Dr A Purohit and the late Prof MJ Reed from Imperial College for their discovery of STX64, a novel agent against steroid sulfatase which has demonstrated evidence of efficacy in the clinic for the treatment of hormone dependent cancers.
The prize is awarded biennially by the Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Sector (BMCS) of the RSC in recognition of recently published outstanding biological & medicinal chemistry research. The presentation was made at the 15th RSC-SCI Medicinal Chemistry Symposium in Cambridge.

Forthcoming Events
• RSC/SCI Oncology meeting 25 May 2010 Belgrave Square
• RSC/SCI Continuous Processes & Flow Chemistry 3-4 November 2010
GSK Stevenage
• RSC/SCI GPCR 2010 20-22 September 2010 Oss, Holland
• Fragments 2011 7-8 March 2011, GSK, Stevenage
• Anglo-Swedish Med. Chem. Symposium 20-23 March 2011, Sweden
Please visit us at www.rsc.org/bmcs

 

 

The Hellenic Society of Medicinal Chemistry (HSMC) organizes the following scientific events in 2010:

In co-operation with the Division of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry of the Association of Greek Chemists (DOMC/AGC), the Hellenic Society of Medicinal Chemistry organizes the 14th Hellenic Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry (HSMC-14). The Symposium will take place in the Thessalonikt/Tox properties in drug discovery. Organic Synthesis, Natural Products, Biochemistry and Chemical Biology, Pharmacology, Computational Chemistry and Cheminformatics are integrated to create the environment for fruitful interchange of ideas between scientists involved.
Further information about the Symposium is available on the website at www.helmedchem2010.gr

In co-operation with Cheminformatics and QSAR Society the 18th European Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry is organized in Rhodes, Greece, on September 19-24, 2010. The 18thEuroQSAR Symposium, entitled ‘Discovery Informatics and Drug Design’ is an EFMC sponsored event. It will focus on the latest scientific and technological developments in QSAR and Cheminformatics, continuing the tradition of holding biannual symposia at different European countries since 1973. This series of Symposia constitute major scientific events in the field of rational drug design, with further applications in agricultural or environmental chemistry. The following topics will be discussed during the five days of the EuroQSAR Symposium in Rhodes:

Pharmacophore Searching and Virtual Screening / Structure-Based Drug Design - Druggability / Bioinformatics / Cheminformatics / Systems Biology and Biological Complexity / Multi-target QSAR / QSPR for Novel Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine / In Silico PhysChem Profiling and ADMET / Predicting Drug Safety / Predictive Toxicology and Risk Assessment - Environmental QSAR / Computational Strategies in Agricultural and Animal Health Research / Novel QSAR Approaches.

Deadline for submission of abstracts nominated for oral presentation is April 1st and for posters April 15th , 2010. Further information on the 18th EuroQSAR is available on the Symposium website at www.euroqsar2010.gr

 

News on Activities planned for 2010 and 2011:

May 27, 2010
Mini-Symposium on ‘Channels and Transporters’ at the Department of Chemistry, University of Basel, comprising overview lectures by Beat Ernst (“Introduction and Basics of Channels and Transporters”), Raimund Dutzler (“The Structural Basis for Ion Conduction and Gating in Pentameric Ligand-Gated Ion Channels”), and Dietrich Keppler (“Uptake and Efflux Transporters for Endogenous Substances and for Drugs”), and two case studies, namely “The Identification of T-Type Calcium Channel Blockers” (Mark J. Suto, Icagen Inc., Durham NC) and “Avosentan” (Werner Neidhart, Roche Basel). No registration is necessary, free entrance is offered to all participants.

September 16, 2010
Division of Medicinal Chemistry, oral and poster session at the Fall Meeting of the Swiss Chemical Society, ETH Zürich.

September 21-24, 2010
The Swiss Chemical Society will organize the ILMAC Scientific Forum at the Fair Basel (MCH) entitled “From Nylon to Nanomaterials. Future Trends in Polymers”, with a specific section on September 23 dedicated to Biopolymers and Polymer Based Drug Delivery. The program will include a lecture by Prof. Alberto A. Gabizon (Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel): “Delivery of Anticancer Agents by Liposomes: Nanomedicine in Action”.

October 10-15, 2010
9th Swiss Course on Medicinal Chemistry, organized by Professor Beat Ernst in Leysin, a pittoresque Swiss mountain village. This course is held every second year. It offers young scientists with a few years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and interested Ph.D. students a broad overview of key disciplines important for modern preclinical drug rvvesearch. Active participation in tutorials and a broad variety of lectures and case histories are important elements of the course (see also www.swiss-chem-soc.ch/events/index.cfm).

March 20-23, 2011
Joint German-Swiss Meeting on Medicinal Chemistry “Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry”, Saarbrücken, Germany.

Participation in various events which will be organized to celebrate the UN International Year of Chemistry 2011.