Our old and ever-faithful website (www.efmc.info) has been delivering news about events and activities of EFMC and of its National Adhering Organisations for a number of years. However, times are changing, and it is beginning to show its age. In a constantly evolving world, full of tablets and smartphones, we need a simpler, smarter and mobile responsive website to work on all platforms

The good news is that our team has been hard at work and is preparing for the launch of the website in January, so stay tuned…!

The European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC) is pleased to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Chemical Biology Society (ICBS) and warmly welcomes this step forward in the collaboration between the two societies.  

Both societies will organise a session at each other’s flagship meeting (EFMC will have a session at the ICBS Meeting in fall 2019 in India and ICBS will hold a session at the EFMC-ISMC 2020 in Basel, Switzerland) and encourage exchange of information between their members.

The agreement also paves the way for future joint ICBS|EFMC meetings in Europe.

We would like to thank the ICBS Board for the kind and fruitful exchanges which led to the current agreement, and look forward to the future of our partnership.

We invite you to have a look at the ICBS website: https://www.chemical-biology.org/

EFMC represents a research community that plays an important role in society. By providing tools to better understand the biology of human diseases and developing new drugs, chemical biologists and medicinal chemists can address issues that represent a huge burden to patients, families and social welfare. In particular, there is an enormous need for improved treatments of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease.

Our recent workshop in Brussels “Parkinson’s disease: understanding the causes to find a cure” was co-organized with EuChemS, alongside Members of the European Parliament, and representatives from the European Commission and the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA). The workshop aimed to increase awareness of both patients and researchers needs, as well as review the latest understanding of the causes of the disease. Further information on this event is available in the press release, and all presentations can be viewed at https://www.euchems.eu/parkinsons-disease-causes-and-cures-workshop/

By participating in such activities, EFMC both supports the cause of patients and helps increase awareness of the need for research funding, and for policies facilitating the task of our scientific community to address these complex issues. Please take advantage of this event to share our efforts within our network, and let people know that EFMC really cares.

To acknowledge and recognise an outstanding young medicinal chemist (≤ 12 years after PhD) working in industry or in academia within Europe, EFMC established the "EFMC Prize for a Young Medicinal Chemist in Industry" and the "EFMC Prize for a Young Medicinal Chemist in Academia".

The Prizes consists of a diploma, € 1.000 and an invitation for a short presentation at the 8th edition of the EFMC International Symposium on Advances in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC-ASMC’19), which will be held in Athens, Greece on September 1-5, 2019.

More information on www.efmc.info/prizes

Building a strong network at the very early stage in your career is crucial. Therefore, EFMC decided to create a new network for young scientists: the EFMC-Young Scientists Network. 

The aim of the EFMC-YSN is to inspire, connect and provide opportunities to medicinal chemists and chemical biologists under the age of 35 by:

• holding dedicated events & competitions
• offering awards to best PhDs & Post-docs
• funding grants and scholarships to attend EFMC organised and sponsored events
• providing a forum to exchange, seek advices and mentoring

Shaping itself it into a usefull tool, custom-made to your needs and managed by young scientists, for young scientists.

Join the EFMC-YSN now and get access to the content as it becomes available in the following weeks/months.

Questions? Reach out to us at ysn@efmc.info

EFMC is supporting the new EuChemS Periodic Table, depicting the issue of element scarcity on the occasion of the upcoming International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements 2019 (IYPT2019). The EFMC shares their hope that this image will lead to reflection, and ultimately action, that it will raise awareness of the threat this poses and also hope to see it have an impact on policy, education and on individual actions.