I am confident that we are a strong scientific community and will recover quickly. Even though there is no doubt that the current crisis will have consequences, cohesion and solidarity will help us mitigate its impact. As scientists, we are experts at solving problems of all kinds: we will rebound, learn and exploit the opportunities created by these exceptional circumstances.

Both in the short and long term, my bet is that medicinal chemistry and chemical biology will help expand our knowledge on SARS-covid2 and deliver decisive contributions to therapeutic and diagnostic tools. In particular, research on antivirals and antibiotics will get a boost, while building bridges between industrial and academic research. Complex clinical development processes will also benefit from the learnings of ongoing emergency trials, as the urgency of the fight against CODIV-19 will force research and development scientists to come together, and review their approach to risk. In this environment, the players showing the capacity to adapt and take advantage of opportunities, while keeping a high level of scientific quality, will shape tomorrow’s world.

As of today, the focus remains on going through the crisis. Ultimately, we will manage well, as some wonderful examples of resilience and dedication already show: teachers spending extended hours recording their courses so that students can keep learning; labs offering all their gloves and masks to nearby hospitals; researchers jumping into the fight, ignoring barriers and developing initiatives against the virus; simple gestures of support across the community... These acts of heroism leave me with no doubt: with patience, we will all come out stronger from this.

Please continue reinforcing the messages around hygiene and social distancing.

Best wishes to you and your families, and stay healthy.
Yves

Nowadays it is well accepted that the early detection of tumors is crucial for their effective treatment and prognosis. In women, breast cancer is the deadliest form of cancer worldwide. Numerous subtypes of breast cancers with distinct differences in therapeutic treatment, invasiveness, and prognosis are described in the literature. Thus, a secure and fast detection method to discriminate invasive from noninvasive breast cancers is crucial for an effective treatment and good prognosis. To date, activatable in vivo probes able have been rarely described in the literature. Li et al. very recently published an activatable polymeric reporter (P-Dex) able to turn on near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent and photoacoustic (PA) signals in response to the urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) overexpressed by invasive breast cancer. In more detail, the polymeric reporter (P''.chr('8208').''Dex) possesses a renal''.chr('8208').''clearable dextran backbone linked with a NIR dye (CyN3OH) coupled with an uPA''.chr('8208').''cleavable substrate through a carbamate''.chr('8208').''based self''.chr('8208').''immolative linker. The dextran backbone is crucial not only for the hydrophilicity and renal clearance to avoid toxicity, but also to facilitate the enzymatic cleavage of the small molecule component. P-Dex is able to distinguish specifically between malignant breast cancer cells such as MDA-MB231) from other less malignant ones such as MCF-7 cells via a passive accumulation and subsequent activation of the fluorescence and PA signals. Interestingly the small molecule probe (SP) alone failed to do so.

The innovative molecular design approach of the authors led to the first polymeric reporter for discriminative detection between invasive breast tumor and noninvasive breast tumor being a great promise for the early detection of malignant forms of breast cancer. This is especially relevant because uPA levels in tumors are closely associated with poor overall survival and relapse''.chr('8208').''free survival, thus P''.chr('8208').''Dex might be useful also for monitoring and evaluating systemic therapy strategies of malignant tumors.

Li, Q., Li, S., He, S., Chen, W., Cheng, P., Zhang, Y., Miao, Q. and Pu, K. (2020), An Activatable Polymeric Reporter for Near''.chr('8208').''Infrared Fluorescent and Photoacoustic Imaging of Invasive Cancer. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. doi: 10.1002/anie.202000035

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.202000035

In addition to invited talks, various presentation opportunities are offered during the symposium:

• 35 oral communication slots
• 6 flash poster presentation sessions
• 2 poster sessions with ample time for discussion

Due to the current situation, no handling fee will be applied for late poster submissions after April 2. Final submission deadline for posters is June 25, 2020.

EFMC Grants

EFMC is funding grants with the aim to support the participation of young academic scientists.

Upon application, 10 grants will be covered, corresponding to the full registration fees.

Apply for a grant. (Deadline is April 2)

The award will be conferred during the opening ceremony of EFMC-ISMC 2020, September 6-10, 2020 in Basel, Switzerland.

After the award ceremony on September 6, the prize winner will be invited to give a lecture.