Dear Colleagues,
While most of you have received this newsletter through the usual e-mail alert system, someone may have discovered it by flipping through the pages of the first issue of MedChemComm, the official journal of EFMC, launched by the Royal Society of Chemistry, which is now out with the first scientific contributions. Starting with this issue, MedChemWatch will be distributed together with MedChemComm by keeping its traditional quarterly release. The collaboration between MedChemComm and MedChemWatch is meant to provide a stronger link between cutting-edge scientific dissemination and the activities promoted by EFMC and National Organizations.
The Perspective article in this issue of MedChemWatch is expected to be a particularly interesting one. Gerhard Ecker and Koen Augustyns, President and Secretary of the EFMC, comment on the role of medicinal chemistry in the 21st century, and try to take on the challenge of a redefining the boundaries of medicinal chemistry in the context of emerging new disciplines like chemical biology and chemogenomics. I am sure that this Perspective will provoke discussion, and I invite all of you to use the newsletter as a tool for exchange ideas and opinion.
This issue of the newsletter is the last one before the XXI International Symposium of Medicinal Chemistry (ISMC), which will be held in Brussels, September 5-9. The EFMC-ISMC, is the biannual world’s largest Medicinal Chemistry meeting and will be articulated in a series of sessions of exceptional scientific level. You may find the final program at http://www.ismc2010.org/, and you are still on time to register.
The ISMC is also the occasion for our community to recognize, though Awards and Prizes, outstanding scientists who have had a significant impact on medicinal chemistry. MedChemWatch has the honor to present the winners of the Awards and Prizes. In this issue, we present the biographical sketch of Camille Wermuth (University Louis Pasteur Strasbourg and Prestwick Chemicals), winner of the Nauta Award, and of Antony Wood (Pfizer Global Research and Development), recipient of the UCB Award. We are also proud to present the scientific activity and the lab of the two young winners of the newly established EFMC Prizes, namely Andreas Bender, for the academia, and Antonio Nardi for the industry. The series of the lab presentation is completed by the contribution from iNovacia AB, Stockholm, Sweden.
As usual, the newsletter contains news from the societies, and from the Executive and other Committees of the EFMC. In particular, there are two new functionalities that have been implemented in the official web site of EFMC (www.efmc.info) and that I am sure will be of great utility to our community. The first one is the Meeting Calendar. This is open to everyone wishes to publish a scientific event. EFMC has not responsibility on the scientific level of each individual published event, but offers a quick way to organize our schedule for the forthcoming months, and provides us with the chance of not missing an interesting event. The second functionality is the Job Portal, which can be used to publicize open positions, in both academia and industries.
Lastly, check out the news opportunities launched by EFMC to support the participation of young academic scientists to EFMC organized events.
My best regards,
Gabriele Costantino
Editor of MedChemWatch
