• 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

The prize-winners will be invited to give oral communications at EFMC-ISMC 2020.

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

Deadline for submission: January 31, 2020

Where and when did you obtain your PhD diploma?
Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Kralove, 2007.

What was the topic of your PhD project?
Synthesis of acetylcholinesterase reactivators and their evaluation against organophosphate poisoning in vitro (Prof. M. Dolezal, Prof. K. Kuca).

Where did you have your postdoc position?
Centre Recherche Service Santé Armée, La Tronche/Grenoble, France (Dr. F. Nachon).

Where do you work at the moment and what is your current position?
Head of Department and Vice-Dean for International Affairs, University of Hradec Kralove, Faculty of Science, Czech Republic, Full Professor.

What are your current research interests?
Cholinesterase antidotes, Alzheimer´s disease, Cancer theranostics.

What do you like most about your job?
Freedom to research unexplored space in MedChem knowledge.

What kind of skills does your job require?
Interdisciplinary skills, team and time management, or plenty of other important skills.

What do you consider your biggest achievement in your scientific career?
To have an opportunity to build up own scientific team.

How many PhD and postdoc students do you have at the moment?
Are you currently looking for a new PhD and postdoc students?
There are five PhD students and several postdocs, plus we are always looking for new candidates.

What are the features of a successful PhD student or postdoc?
I would recommend to a candidate a broader topic covering interdisciplinary techniques. I have personal experience with combination of in silico techniques, chemical synthesis, in vitro and in vivo evaluation, which is complex and always help in the MedChem field.

Which scientist do you admire the most and why?
I admire all my former supervisors and former or current colleagues that always helped me to move forward.

Which paper of yours you are the proudest of and why?
I am very satisfied with our latest paper in J. Med. Chem., which concerns on modified cholinesterase antidotes. Such oximes showed broad-spectrum ability and are noticeably better to standards after last 40 years of research. BTW this article was selected as one of the front covers for J. Med. Chem. 2018 vol. 61 no. 23.

Which field of medicinal chemistry do you consider to be the most promising?
Artificial intelligence (AI) might help a lot, when it would be properly handled.

What would you guess to be the next major breakthrough in medicinal chemistry?
Identifying the novel targets and finding the novel scaffolds for infectious or parasitic diseases.

Dr Michal SHOSHAN (ETH Zürich, Switzerland) received the EFMC-YMCS Presentation Prize for her presentation on the "Directed Evolution of Short Peptides for Selective Detoxification of Lead". The prize was awarded by Yves P. Auberson - EFMC President on behalf of the prize sponsors EFMC & Idorsia. The Prize consists of an oral communication slot and free registration for the next EFMC-ISMC Meeting in Basel, Switzerland and a travel grant of up to 1000€, offered by Idorsia.

Mr Alwin HARTMAN (University of Groningen, The Netherlands) received the EFMC-YMCS Poster Prize for his presentation on "Discovery of Small-Molecule Modulators of 14-3-3 PPIs Via Dynamic Combinatorial Chemistry”. The prize was awarded by Dave Alker on behalf of the prize sponsors RSC Medicinal Chemistry/ChemMedChem. The Prize consists of a diploma, a 200€ prize offered by RSC Medicinal Chemistry, a 100€ book voucher offered by Wiley, and a subscription to both journals.

Ms Marta FALCICCHIO (University of Leicester, UK) has been identified and acknowledged as the 1st Runner-up for her presentation on "Small Molecule Stabilisation of the P53 – 14-3-3Σ Interaction as a Therapeutic Modality for Cancer”. The Prize consists of a diploma, a 100€ prize offered by RSC Medicinal Chemistry, a 100€ book voucher offered by Wiley, and a subscription to both journals.

Honorary Mentions were given to Mr Antonios DRAKOPOULOS (University of Wuerzburg, Germany) and Ms Jelena KONSTANTINOVIC (Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS), Germany). The Prize consisted of a diploma and an EFMC T-shirt, notepad & pen.

Mr Riccardo PROVENZANI (University of Helsinki, Finland) was awarded the EFMC-YMCS Poster Prize - Public Selection for his presentation on "Design and Synthesis of Multisubstituted 1,2,3,4-Tetrahydropyrimidines as Novel Allosteric Modulators Targeted to the C1 Domain of PKC”. The Prize consists of a diploma, a 100€ prize offered by RSC Medicinal Chemistry and a subscription to both journals.

Finally, Ms Maja BEUS (University of Zagreb, Croatia) was awarded the EFMC-YMCS Public's Choice Prize for her presentation on "Antiplasmodial Activity of Sahaquines, Novel SAHA - Primaquine Hybrids". The prize, based on the votes of YMCS participants, was awarded by Yves P. Auberson on behalf of the prize sponsor Roche. The Prize consists of a diploma and an iPad.

EuChemS has made a substantial contribution to the International Year of the Periodic Table, which has included a thought-provoking rendering of the Periodic Table. There is even a video game to be found on the EuChemS website. Many congratulations must go to Past-President David Cole-Hamilton, for whom this was his final General Assembly, not only for his incredible work on IYPT but his many contributions to EuChemS.

We also congratulate Floris Rutjes from the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society (KNCV) for his election as EuChemS President-Elect, and Eckart Rühl, of the German Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry, who was re-elected as EuChemS Treasurer. Bonnie Charpentier, President of the American Chemical Society (ACS) was invited to the open session of the General Assembly, where, together with Pilar Goya, EuChemS President, a ‘Chemisty Enterprise Partnership’ was signed. The document reaffirms the commitment of both the ACS and EuChemS to work together to advance the chemical sciences, and to promote chemistry as a way of addressing global challenges, particularly as laid out in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A final word of thanks to the Romanian Chemical Society and the award to EFMC of their Centary Medal. Our congratulations on such a historic landmark.

Like us, EuChemS celebrates its 50th anniversary next year. We wish EuChemS all the best for 2020 and look forward to celebrating our golden jubilees together.

Matt Tozer (Executive Committee Member)

A lecture by Tiziano BANDIERA – Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia – Genova (I) presented the small molecule medicines that entered the market in 2018, highlighting their crucial role, as demonstrated by the fact that of the 59 new drugs approved in 2018 by FDA, 42 (71%) were new molecular entities.

Students had also the opportunity to participate to a special Round Table entitled “Medicinal Chemistry, what’s next” (Chairman Gabriele COSTANTINO – Past President of the Medicinal Chemistry Division – SCI) dedicated to the future of Medicinal Chemistry, with the participation of Yves AUBERSON, President of the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry, Jürgen BAJORATH and Ulrike HOLZGRABE, Editors of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Roberto PELLICCIARI (Tes Pharma Srl, Perugia) and Loredana BERGAMINI (Farmindustria).

All the participants to the round table spoke of the strategic importance of medicinal chemistry in the discovery and development of drugs, which is still one of the leading sectors of the European economies.

In order to promote the widest participation of young researchers and students, the policy of the school is to keep the registration fee as low as possible, which is helped by the financial support of institutions interested in the school's success.

The school also offers grants to young scientists; this year 13 scholarships have been offered to European students (3 financed by EFMC and 10 directly by the ESMEC), together with 5 scholarships to Italian students, financed by the Medicinal Chemistry Division of the Italian Chemical Society.

Another important moment of the school is represented by the poster session, when the young students have the opportunity to present their research. This year we had more than 50 posters.

Four poster prizes selected by the scientific committee were also assigned:
- Marta SERAFINI: Award from the young representative of the Italian Chemical Society
- Raquel GIL EDO: ESMEC Award
- Mariia MISHINA: StepBio Award
- Mateusz SWIRSKI: Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Award

Finally – last but not least – the other ingredient of the school is the magic atmosphere and friendship created by the students. This is due to the beautiful location in the centre of the UNESCO site Urbino and to the local organizing committee that works tirelessly and always with great passion.

The next edition of the school will be in Urbino from June 28th to July 2nd, 2020 and it will be a special edition, thus celebrating the 40th edition!

The RDPA2019 aimed to provide a panel of scientists to interact and discuss the most advanced scientific breakthroughs and techniques in the field of pharmaceutical analysis and closely related disciplines. The meeting offered an exciting chance to debate future trends to provide topical coverage of key disciplines, and favour scientific networking. The meeting was partnered with the 2019 edition of the Summer School in Pharmaceutical Analysis – SSPA2019 “Current Trends in the Analysis of Medicinal Plants”, which was directed to graduate, post-graduate, PhD students and young researchers operating in Academia and Industry.

The aim of this international event is to learn more about the latest advances in the field of chemical biology and to foster an open and dynamic dialogue amongst the scientists conducting this exciting research.

Registration is now open until December 16, 2019.
Fee waiver/travel grant fellowships are available. The event will also include a Poster & Young researcher prize session.

Full details can be found on the symposium website: http://symposium.nccr-chembio.ch/

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
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.

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