MedChemWatch
Monthly Newsletter October 2019

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS - EFMC AWARDS 2020

To acknowledge outstanding achievements in the field of Medicinal Chemistry, EFMC confers every two years three Awards. The 2020 Awards will be presented at the XXVI EFMC "International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry" (EFMC-ISMC'20) to be held in Basel, Switzerland on September 6-10, 2020.

All 3 awards consist of a diploma, € 7.500 and an invitation to give a headline presentation at EFMC-ISMC 2020.

THE NAUTA PHARMACOCHEMISTRY AWARD FOR MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL BIOLOGY

The Award will be given for outstanding achievements in scientific research, together with a contribution to the development of international organisational structures in Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology.

THE UCB-EHRLICH AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY

To acknowledge and recognise outstanding research in the field of Medicinal Chemistry in its broadest sense by a young scientist. This Award has been established with the support of UCB Pharma.

THE PROUS INSTITUTE - OVERTON and MEYER AWARD FOR NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN DRUG DISCOVERY

To encourage innovation and investigation in technological development related to drug discovery, this Award established with the support of Prous Institute will be given for the discovery, evaluation or use of new technologies.

Nominations for these Awards consist of a nomination letter, a brief CV including a list of selected publications and two supporting letters. Self-nominations are also accepted. The nominations should be submitted to Dr Yves Auberson, President of the EFMC, via the following link:

Awards Nominations

Deadline for submission: January 31, 2020

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS - EFMC PRIZES 2020

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

The two Prizes are given annually and consists of a diploma, € 1.000 and an invitation for a short presentation at an EFMC symposium.

The prize-winners will be invited to give oral communications at EFMC-ISMC'20.

Applications and regulations can be found on https://www.efmc.info/efmc-prizes

Deadline for submission: January 31, 2020

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS - EFMC PARTNER PRIZES

EFMC-ISMC'20 will also be the stage for several EFMC Partners to deliver their prizes.

You will find below the information on the Klaus Grohe Prize 2020 and the 2020 IUPAC-Richter Prize in Medicinal Chemistry.

KLAUS GROHE PRIZE 2020

The Klaus Grohe Foundation, which is administered by the GDCh (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker/German Chemical Society), has established the Klaus Grohe Prize, one of the most highly endowed prizes for medicinal chemistry in Europe. The prize, which has a value of € 50,000 will be awarded every two years from 2020.

The prize is conferred on an individual working in Europe who has demonstrated creativity and excellence in developing novel principles of medicinal chemistry or drug discovery and whose research results plot a clear route towards future applications. The award winner should be under the age of 45 with a promising independent scientific career and should already enjoy international recognition for his or her outstanding achievements in the field.

The award will be conferred for the first time on September 6, 2020, during the opening ceremony of EFMC-ISMC'20. After the award ceremony, the prize winner will be invited to give a lecture on his or her scientific work.

Nominations for the award should be supported by a letter of endorsement, a curriculum vitae and a list of publications. Please note that self-nominations are not allowed.

Please submit your nomination by 31 January 2020 to b.koehler@gdch.de or by post to Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, Barbara Köhler, Awards, Varrentrappstraße 40-42, 60486 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Contact:
Barbara Köhler
Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker e.V.
Awards, International affairs
P.O. Box 90 04 40
60444 Frankfurt a.M.
Germany
Phone +49 (0)69 7917-323
Fax +49 (0)69 7917-1323
E-mail: b.koehler@gdch.de

 

2020 IUPAC-RICHTER PRIZE IN MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY

The 2020 IUPAC-Richter Prize will be presented during EFMC-ISMC'20, where the recipient will also give a plenary lecture on the subject of his/her research.

The prize is to be awarded to an internationally recognized scientist, preferably a medicinal chemist, whose activities or published accounts have made an outstanding contribution to the practice of medicinal chemistry or to an outstanding example of new drug discovery.

Prize USD 10 000

The Prize has been established by a generous gift from the Chemical Works of Gedeon Richter, Plc. (Budapest, Hungary) to acknowledge the key role that medicinal chemistry plays toward improving human health.

Applicants should be received by NOMINATION only, with just one person needing to serve in that capacity, although a total of five (5) individuals should be listed as referees overall. The package must be submitted electronically and should contain a complete resume, a professional autobiography of not more than two pages, and a one-page summary of what the individual considers to be his/her activities, accomplishments and/or publications that have had the most significant impact upon the field of Medicinal Chemistry. The material will be forwarded confidentially to an independent selection committee appointed by the IUPAC Subcommittee on Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Development.

For further information please contact Prof. Janos Fischer, Chairman of the IUPAC Sub-committee on Drug Discovery and Development, by email at j.fischer@richter.hu

Nomination materials should be uploaded by 15 December 2019 to IUPAC Secretariat via the following form

MEET CLEMENS ZWERGEL, THE NEW MEMBER OF THE EFMC COMMUNICATION TEAM

Clemens Zwergel is a postdoctoral scientist at the Sapienza University of Rome. He recently joined the EFMC Communication Team and the board of the Young Scientists Network with a strong motivation to spread the awareness of EFMC in Europe and around the globe!

He was one of the first who participated in the “I am a Medicinal Chemist” interviews in 2018, read his interview below.

How did you get interested in Medicinal Chemistry?
Standing as a child in the pharmacy of my aunt I was fascinated by the miracles happening in the pharmacy watching her dispensing all the coloured pills and creams. As I was growing my interests got more focused and I decided to become a healthcare professional studying pharmacy. At faculty of pharmacy, I met my first supervisor Prof C. Jacob getting me in touch with the world of science and research. He aroused my passion for medicinal chemistry while working on my diploma thesis with his unique character to motivate his students.

Where do you work at the moment and what is your current position?
I am a postdoctoral scientist at the Sapienza University of Rome in the Department of Drug Chemistry and Technologies. I am working in the team of Prof. Antonello Mai on various epigenetic targets.

What are your current research interests?
I am focused on the design and synthesis of small epigenetic modulators targeting all main classes readers, writers and erasers. For example, one of my current projects involves novel and selective HDACi in cancerous and non-cancerous diseases.

What do you like most in your job?
Certainly I like best the fact with my current job that I can combine practical work in the lab with creative thinking and writing. However I consider also teaching and advising students as a source of pleasure as these people are the next-generation scientists one can help to find their way.

What do you consider your biggest achievement in your scientific career?
That is not an easy question but I guess winning the Marie-Fellowship and thus doing my PhD project within an international network of experts was my biggest achievement so far.

What are the features of a successful PhD student or postdoc?
I would not limit this question only to PhD students and postdocs but to scientists in general. A good scientist needs to be a good all-rounder. He needs to possess not only creative skills and a strong working attitude but also practical skills are required to conduct the previously planned experiments. Problem solving strategies do not only help to get around scientific problems but also help with the interaction of colleagues and collaborators. Furthermore it is becoming more important also to be a marketing expert not only to promote the own career but also to attract sufficient funding.

What is the most embarrassing thing you did in the lab while doing experiments?
This story dates back well 12 years ago when I was still an undergraduate student. I was working in a team and I throwed away our product instead of the waste after 3 days of labwork. You can imagine that my team-mate was not very happy and also our instructor as we had to repeat all on an extra day. However I learned an important lesson: don’t throw away anything until you have your result.

Which scientist do you admire the most and why?
That is a tough question to name just one scientist because there are too many excellent ones, but you asked for one so my choice would be Leonardo Da Vinci. He influenced as universal talent our modern world we live in today in a way you cannot underestimate. His visons almost 500 years ago could be confirmed or became reality just now. He drafted not only the first idea of an helicopter but his contributions to anatomy were fundamental for our modern medicine of today.

What would you guess to be the next major breakthrough in medicinal chemistry?
In the years to come I expect the first multi-target modulators to be marketed. This intelligent approach usually allows scientists to avoid toxic side effects of single agents alone and reduce the risk of resistance development.

GET TO KNOW ANNA KATHERINA HERTA HIRSCH (HIPS, GERMANY)

Discovery the story of the most meritorious runner-up of the 2019 EFMC Prize for a Young Medicinal Chemist in Academia – and keynote lecturer of the EFMC Session at AIMECS 2019, Prof. Anna Katherina Herta Hirsch from the Helmholtz-Institut für Pharmazeutische Forschung Saarland in Germany. 

Where and when did you obtain your PhD diploma?
2008 (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)

What was the topic of your PhD project?
Design and synthesis of inhibitors of the antimalarial target enzyme IspE (Prof. F. Diederich).

Where did you have your postdoc position?
Institut de Science et d’Ingénierie Supramoléculaires, Strasbourg, France (Prof. J.-M-Lehn)

Where do you work at the moment and what is your current position?
Head of department at Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland and full professor at Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany.

What are your current research interests?
Anti-infective drug discovery using both established and innovative, protein-templated approaches.

What do you like most in your job?
The creativity and freedom to focus on the projects that inspire me the most.
The diversity of the activities: research, teaching, project discussions with coworkers and collaboration partners, writing, presenting, attending conferences etc.

What kind of tasks your job includes?
Carry out research, teaching, project discussions with coworkers and collaboration partners, writing scientific papers and grants, presenting the results, attending conferences, serving on committees etc.

What kind of skills your job requires?
Creativity, communication skills, critical thinking, problem-solving skills, organisational skills, time-management skills.

What do you consider your biggest achievement in your scientific career?
Obtaining the ERC starting grant and securing my current position.

How many PhD and postdoc students do you have at the moment?
13 PhD students and 10 postdocs.

Are you currently looking for a new PhD and postdoc students?
Yes always.

What are the features of a successful PhD student or postdoc?
Self-motivated, creative, persistent, meticulous, interested to venture into new fields/learn new techniques.

How would you describe yourself as a supervisor?
Open-minded, giving coworkers a lot of freedom do develop their own ideas, supportive, ambitious, creating and maintaining a collaborative environment and spirit in the group.

What is the most embarrassing thing you did in the lab while doing experiments, e.g. explosions?
As a Master’s student, I handled 1,2-ethane-dithiol for the first time and was not aware of its smell.

Which scientist do you admire the most and why?
Marie Curie for her scientific achievements and for being an important role model as a female scientist, certainly ahead of her time.

Which paper of yours you are the proudest of and why?
First report on the synergistic combination of dynamic combinatorial chemistry and structure-based de novo design (M. Mondal et al., Angewandte Chemie, 2014).

Which field of medicinal chemistry do you consider the most promising in the future?
As an academia, I believe it is most valuable, rewarding and urgent to work in a field that is underexplored/neglected by the pharmaceutical industry such as anti-infective drug discovery.

What would you guess to be the next major breakthrough in medicinal chemistry?
1. Obtaining structures of complexes of target protein and inhibitor on a routine basis thanks to the continuous developments in structural biology, in particular electron microscopy.
2. Cell-based target validation thanks to progress in the field of chemical probe design.

REPORT OF THE EFMC SESSION AT AIMECS 2019

The 12th International Symposium of the Asian Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (AFMC) was held in the beautiful city of Istanbul, Turkey from September 8 – 11, 2019. This bi-annual symposium is the most important organization of AFMC and is traditionally held in the home country of the AFMC president. Prof. Esin Aki-Yalcin, President of AFMC, and Prof. Ismail Yalcin, chair of the organizing committee, managed to put together an interesting program in a very friendly atmosphere. With 155 participants from 27 different countries, the symposium was less well attended than previous editions, but this created a lot of interaction among the participants.

 

 

Participants of the 12th AIMECS 2019 symposium in Istanbul, Turkey.

The opening lecture on regenerative medicines was delivered by Prof. Toshi-Hiko Kobayashi, founding father of AFMC (University of Tokyo, Japan). Other key note lectures were presented by several international speakers from Israel, Taiwan, Greece, Turkey, South Korea, France, USA, Germany, Australia and Indonesia.

The EFMC session, chaired by EFMC Past President Prof. Koen Augustyns, featured an excellent keynote lecture from Prof. Anna Katharina Hirsch, Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research, Saarland, Germany. Anna, runner-up for the EFMC 2019 Prize for a young medicinal chemist in academia, presented her latest research on novel antibacterial agents with a focus on inhibiting the energy-coupling factor transporters using modern techniques such as structure-based virtual screening and dynamic combinatorial chemistry.

 

Anna Hirsch, keynote lecturer in the EFMC session

 

The General Assembly of AFMC elected Dr. Norio Matsuki, University of Tokyo, Japan as the next AFMC President. Together with Prof. Motomu Kanai he will organize the 13th AIMECS at the University of Tokyo from November 29 till December 2nd 2021.

 

From left to right: Ismail Yalcin (chair AIMECS organizing committee), Esin Aki-Yalcin (AFMC President), Norio Matsuki (AFMC President elect), Toshi-Hiko Kobayashi (AFMC founder)

 

The EFMC would like to thank Esin Aki-Yalcin and Ismail Yalcin for the friendly contacts during the last two years, Anna Hirsch for her excellent contribution and congratulates Norio Matsuki for being elected as new AFMC president. We are very much looking forward to continue the successful EFMC-AFMC collaboration.

Report by Koen Augustyns (University of Antwerp, Belgium)

NEWS FROM THE DIVISION MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY, ROYAL NETHERLANDS CHEMICAL SOCIETY (KNCV)

Prizes FIGON Dutch Medicines Days – delegate EFMC-YMCS 2020

During the FIGON Dutch Medicines Days in Leiden, a two-day national symposium on drug development and medicines, the division Medicinal Chemistry of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society awarded a presentation prize and poster prize to young researchers in medicinal chemistry.

The presentation prize (€ 500) was awarded to Dr. Tom van der Wel of the group of Prof. Dr. Mario van der Stelt (Leiden University) for the talk entitled ‘Precise gene editing reveals role of FES tyrosine kinase in neutrophil phagocytosis via SYK activation’. In his PhD study he developed chemical tools and a chemical genetics strategy that allows the study of non-receptor tyrosine kinase FES, a promising therapeutic target for cancer and immune disorders. The presented methodology could provide powerful tools to study the function of poorly characterized kinases and aid in their validation as therapeutic targets. Tom van der Wel will be the Dutch delegate for the EFMC-YMCS 2020 in Basel, where he will present his results obtained in his PhD study. Part of the prize is also a grant to visit the EFMC-ISMC.

FIGON awarded posters prizes (€ 150) in the categories ‘Discovery 1: Cell and Signalling’ en ‘Discovery 2: Receptor/Ligand and Channel/Transporter’ to:

     1. Iris Leijten-van de Gevel of the group of Prof. Dr. Luc Brunsveld (Eindhoven University of Technology) for the poster 'Elucidating the                           prerequisites of forming the allosteric pocket in RORyt’
     2. Huub Sijben of the group of Prof. Dr. Ad IJzerman (Leiden University) for the poster ‘Development of a label-free, whole-cell assay to measure           activity of the norepinephrine transporter (NET/SLC6A2)’.

NEWS FROM THE BIOLOGICAL AND MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY SECTOR (BMCS) OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY (RSC)

The BMCS is pleased to announce some upcoming events.

6th RSC/SCI SYMPOSIUM ON ION CHANNELS AS THERAPEUTIC TARGETS
24th to 25th February 2020, Wellcome Genome Campus Conference Centre, Cambridge, UK
The call for poster abstracts will close 15th November 2019
Website: http://www.rsc.org/events/detail/36598/6th-ion-channels-as-therapeutic-targets

Synopsis: The symposium will showcase the most recent advances in ion channel science and promote scientific interaction between scientists with a shared interest in the field of ion channel drug discovery. The conference will be organised around series of plenary lectures delivered by international leaders in ion channels science and drug discovery from academia and industry

2ND RSC/SCI APPLIED LATE STAGE FUNCTIONALISATION SYMPOSIUM
18th to 19th February 2020, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
The call for poster abstracts will close on 13th December
Website: http://www.rsc.org/events/detail/41281/applied-late-stage-functionalisation-where-chemistry-meets-biology

Synopsis: The meeting will highlight some of the hot and emerging developments in the inorganic catalysis and biocatalysis arenas and both the academic and application of late-stage functionalisation methodologies

6TH RSC / SCI SYMPOSIUM ON ION CHANNELS AS THERAPEUTIC TARGETS
24thto 25th February 2020, Wellcome Genome Campus Conference Centre, Cambridge, UK
The call for poster abstracts will close 15th November 2019
Website: http://www.rsc.org/events/detail/36598/6th-ion-channels-as-therapeutic-targets

Synopsis: The symposium will showcase the most recent advances in ion channel science and promote scientific interaction between scientists with a shared interest in the field of ion channel drug discovery. The conference will be organised around series of plenary lectures delivered by international leaders in ion channels science and drug discovery from academia and industry

1ST RSC BMCS SYNTHESIS IN DRUG DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM
27th March 2020, Eli Lilly, Windlesham, Surrey, UK
The call for poster abstracts will close on 30th January
Website: http://www.rsc.org/events/detail/39710/synthesis-in-drug-discovery-and-development

Synopsis: This symposium aims to highlight and celebrate the crucial role which synthetic organic chemistry plays in the success of small molecule drug discovery. The three main themes of the symposium will be: • Innovative synthesis facilitating candidate discovery, • Novel bioisosteres and methodology applicable to drug discovery, • Overcoming challenges of scale-up and process scale chemistry

NEWS OF THE FRENCH SOCIETY OF MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY (SCT)

The SCT is pleased to announce its upcoming one-day thematic symposium: “Drug Discovery in the RNA world” – scheduled to take place on December 11th, 2019 in Paris, France. The 4th one-day thematic symposium will be focusing on the contribution of Chemical Biology to Molecular Therapeutic Innovations.

The aim of the symposium is to illustrate the great potential and applications of RNA-targeting modalities in contributing to therapeutic innovation. This meeting is dedicated to a large audience of organic and medicinal chemists, biochemists and biologists from academic and industry. During this day, we will focus on recent advances in the field of RNA targeting using small molecules as well as oligonucleotides: the synthetic challenges involved in the design of RNA-targeting agents and on the validation of relevant RNA targets, as well as on the current methodologies used to study RNA/ligands interactions. RNA has already been drugged. Ribosomal RNA was drugged serendipitously with natural product antibiotics and later linezolid. A design-driven approach to drugging RNA was achieved with antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) and then by RNA interference (RNAi) mechanisms.

More recently, small molecules that bind to the FMN riboswitch and to SMN2 pre-mRNA were reported and are close to clinical application. All those recent developments in the field of RNA-targeting definitely hold promise for future therapeutic applications.

List of confirmed speakers:

Matthew DISNEY (Scripps, Florida, USA): “Translating RNA sequence into lead small molecule medicines.”
Maria DUCA (Université Côte d’Azur, France): “Synthetic small-molecule RNA ligands : Scope and applications”
Mélanie ETHEVE-QUELQUEJEU (Université de Paris, France): “Modified RNAs as Molecular Tools for Structural and Functional Studies of RNAs dependents Enzymes”
Eric ENNIFAR (Université de Strasbourg, France): "Structure-guided discovery of novel ligands targeting the HIV-1 genomic viral RNA"
Jonathan HALL (ETH Zurich, Switzerland): “A Bright Future for Oligonucleotide Drugs”
Gerhard MUELLER (Gotham Therapeutics, Germany): “Epitranscriptomic readers, writers, and erasers: a biophysics and medicinal chemistry perspective”
Alleyn PLOWRIGHT (Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH, Germany): “Modulating RNA - recent drug discovery approaches and opportunities for diverse modalities”
Helene TRAN (Servier Research Institute, France): “Antisense Oligonucleotides Therapeutics for CNS Disorders”

Link for registration:
http://www.sct-asso.fr/fall_one_day_symposium.html

 

 

EFMC SPONSORED EVENTS

November 20, 2019 
Nottingham, United Kingdom
Twenty Years of the Rule of Five Symposium

November 22, 2019 
Brussels, Belgium
MedChem 2019 - Peptide Drug Discovery: a Niche Area?

January 19-23, 2020
St. Anton, Austria
2nd Alpine Winter Conference on Medicinal and Synthetic Chemistry

April 14-15, 2020
San Francisco, United States
Medicinal Chemistry Strategies to Mitigate Preclinical Safety Risks in Drug Discovery

EFMC EVENTS

May 3-6, 2020
Oegstgeest (near Leiden), The Netherlands
16th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry: New Opportunities in GPCR Drug Discovery

September 6-10, 2020 
Basel, Switzerland
EFMC-ISMC 2020: XXVI EFMC International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry

September 10-11, 2020 
Basel, Switzerland
EFMC-YMCS 2020: 7th EFMC Young Medicinal Chemist Symposium

JOB PORTAL

Tenure Track Assistant Professor(s) at the Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus, Denmark

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Professor(s) at the Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus, Denmark

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Associate Professor(s) at the Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus, Denmark

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Post-doctoral position in Medicinal Chemistry, 100%, University of Basel, Department of Biomedicine, Basel, Switzerland

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Post-doctoral position in Biology/Immunology, 100%, University of Basel, Department of Biomedicine, Basel, Switzerland

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HR Operations Manager, Sygnature Discvoery, HR, Nottingham, United Kingdom

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Chemistry Program Leader, Chemical Genomics, PPI and Protein Degradation , Almirall, Drug Discovery, Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain

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Expert Scienstist, Bioessays and Biophysics, Almirall, Drug Discovery, Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain

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Expert Scientst, Computation Chemistry, Almirall, Drug Discovery, Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain

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