How did you get interested in Medicinal Chemistry?
Through natural product total synthesis; I was always impressed by what Nature’s bounty could achieve in modulating biology and wanted to try my hand at it.

Where and when did you obtain your PhD diploma?
Boston College, 2007

What was the topic of your PhD project
Total synthesis of a marine natural product of no known use

Where did you have your postdoc position?
ETH Zürich, with Prof. Donald Hilvert

Where are you currently working and what is your current position?
Associate Professor of Chemistry, University of Basel

What are your current research interests?
Performing complex chemistry on DNA as well as using small molecules to degrade proteins

How would you explain what your research area is to non-scientists?
Designing precision tools on the molecular scale to change biological processes

What do you like best about your work?
Always new problems to solve, always new stuff to learn

What kind of tasks does your work involve?
Considering problems in biology and designing molecules to study those problems

What kind of skills does your work require?
Synthetic chemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, analytical chemistry

What do you consider your greatest achievement in your scientific career?
I can’t point to one discovery. Looking back over an area of research with many discoveries is what I consider achievement.

Which of your papers are you most proud of and why?
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2015/sc/c5sc00921a
This paper outlines our discovery that suitably placed boronic acids accelerate and improve oxime formations. We studied it as a bioconjugation tool and it continues to be used in many areas.

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2016/sc/c6sc03502g
An unusual and unexpected discovery for us: copper carbenes, which we thought would be extremely reactive, can actually deliver clean synthetically useful modifications of nucleic acids.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/anie.201902513
We executed a large complex synthesis on DNA, pushing the synthetic limits of on-DNA chemistry.

How many PhD students and postdocs do you currently supervise?
Are you currently looking for a new PhD student or a postdoc?
Currently we are 13 people and could expand to 15.

What are the features of a successful PhD student or postdoc?
Fearlessness: The willingness to step outside of your comfort zone and learn new things.

How would you describe yourself as a supervisor?
Curious, attentive, willing to help.

What is the most embarrassing thing you have done in the lab while doing experiments, e.g. explosions?
Refluxing reaction exploded, stunk out the whole building…leading to an “investigation”.

What are your recommendations for a book, podcast, website, blog, YouTube channel or film?
Anything by Steven Pinker, Richard Dawkins, Hans Rosling

Which scientist do you admire the most and why?
Steven Pinker – For his ability to change the world with simple logic and accessible argumentation.

Have you experienced any unfair situations during your scientific career?
Absolutely, but many people of different skin colour or gender than me have had it much worse.

Which field of medicinal chemistry do you consider the most promising for the future?
Building molecules that are capable of executing complex functions.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to know more about your field?
Come and work in my lab.

What would you like to ask from other medicinal chemists?
Send your best students to my lab.

What would you expect to be the next major breakthrough in medicinal chemistry?
Small molecules collaborating with biologics in immunoncology

• Episode I - Validating Chemical Probes

High quality chemical probes are essential to explore human biology and diseases and, as chemists, we have a big role to play to ensure high quality of the published probes.

• Episode II - Phenotypic Drug Discovery (PDD)

Phenotypic drug discovery (PDD) has contributed to the discovery of many innovative drugs and has received  growing attention over the last few years. Learn about the opportunities and challenges of phenotypic drug discovery and share best practices utilised in industry and academia.

• Episode III - Hit Generation

Hit generation is a crucial step in the drug discovery process. Accessing high quality hits will greatly increase the speed and chance of success to identify drug candidates. Discover current approaches to generate and validate hits, and the importance of having an integrated strategy combining several approaches

Want more? Stay tuned as the team will be releasing the fourth episode “Tactics: how to select the right starting points” in the upcoming months!

In fact, chemical biology has long been included in DCF-SCI's events. For instance, the Italian national symposium NMMC (the 27^th edition will be held in Bari, September 11–14 2022) always include chemical biology topics. Similarly, the 2022 edition of the European School of Medicinal Chemistry (ESMEC, Urbino, July 3–7 2022) will cover new modalities for targeting challenging proteins and the Summer School on Pharmaceutical Analysis (SSPA, Rimini, September 21–23 2022) will be focused on bioanalytical methods.

For additional thoughts regarding the chemical biology–medicinal chemistry continuum, please see ChemBioChem, 2021, 22, 2823. Additionally, the first of the series of webinars and slide decks of the EFMC Best Practice Initiative is dedicated to the generation and validation of high-quality chemical probes, which are critical for drug discovery and more broadly to further our understanding of human biology and disease (ChemMedChem 2020, 15, 2388).

The participants attended a high-quality programme (average rating 4.1 on a scale from 0-5) of three keynote lectures and eight themed sessions gathering 26 invited lectures and 6 oral communications from submitted abstracts. Highlights of the programme included the keynote lectures by Prof Angela Koehler (MIT, United States), Prof. Paul Knochel (Ludwig Maximilians University, Germany) and Dr Wendy Young (MPM Capital, United States).

The individual sessions of the conference:

• Automation and Machine Learning Applications for Medicinal Chemistry
• Covalent Targeting: Innovating for the Future
• Drug Discovery Tales
• Increasing sp3 Fragment Options: Advances in the Synthesis of Small Ring Systems
• Methodologies to Understand Cellular Target Interaction
• Targeting Unstructured Proteins
• The "Catalytic Cycle" of Complex Molecule Synthesis and Methodology Development
• Understanding PK and PK/PD relationships in drug discovery - Target Mediated Drug Disposition

Despite the virtual format, the organisers offered many networking opportunities to connect individual participants with each other. The virtual conference centre offered a chat system, video calls, interactive poster sessions, and virtual exhibitions.

The Scientific Organizing Committee thanks all attendees for their active participation at the virtual edition of the Alpine Winter Conference and is looking forward to welcoming you all to St. Anton, Austria in January 2024! 

The successful candidate will be selected based on outstanding innovation and applied state-of-the-art molecular design skills that have contributed to a demonstrated advance to drug discovery boundaries. In particular, the assessment panel are keen to recognise “molecular architects” that have demonstrated excellence in drug design via a rational approach to the data analysis and design phase resulting in highly informative novel molecules or drug candidates that have significantly advanced a drug discovery project. 

Submissions should be the subject of a published (or accepted) scientific article preferably, to cover a “breakthrough” discovery or innovative technology, and may include the application of machine-learning and/or artificial intelligence (AI).

Prize description
•  The amount to be awarded is three thousand euros (3 000 €).
 
Application Deadline
•  31st March 2022 (at midnight)
 
Eligibility criteria
•  The successful candidate will be a “molecular architect” who has demonstrated adventurous and creative qualities to push the boundaries of the industry’s current thinking in drug design and data analysis.
•  The candidate should clearly demonstrate that they has significantly contributed to aspects relevant to excellence in molecular design within discovery research projects.
•  The candidate must have published a key article illustrating innovation in molecular design or should be able to demonstrate that such publication is likely to be accepted.
•  The candidate should be an “early to mid-career researcher” and have a valid membership to the EFMC throughout their national EFMC-adhering organisation (NAO).
 
Award Holder obligation
On top of the mandatory affiliation to one of the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology (EFMC) adhering societies for the year of application, the Award Holder should respect ethical criteria:
1.  To promote SCT and EFMC among his network, and to be an EFMC-adhering society member at least one additional year after receiving his prize.
2.  To promote the sponsor along his network, according to some pre-rules established with them.
3.  To give a lecture at one of the SCT scientific events decided between SCT and EVOTEC.

Application procedure
•  The candidacy report (5 pages maximum) should present a full description of the innovation, including the state-of-art-design, the context and the exceptional added value of the innovation plus potential  downstream value, plus any references/publications/patents, and  a short CV of the candidate.
•  This should be sent in a single pdf file named: EVOTECPrize_NAME_FirstName.pdf to secretary(at)sct-asso.fr and president(at)sct-asso.fr before the stated deadline.

The international symposium will focus on current developments, novel approaches and cutting-edge technologies in the field of medicinal chemistry and drug research with sessions on: Non-Mainstream Chemotypes, Chemical Epigenetics, First Disclosures & Case Studies, Next Generation Drugs, Macrocycles, AI–Retrosynthesis and Automation, Medicinal Chemistry and Target Highlights, Young Investigators.

The scientific program will include lectures, and poster presentations. It is the goal of the organisers to make this meeting an event of scientific excellence, attractive to both industrial and academic scientists in Medicinal Chemistry, Chemical Biology, and related fields of research.

More information and registration available here.

Fragments VIII:  8^th RSC-BMCS Fragment-based Drug Discovery meeting

27^thand 28^th March 2022, Churchill College, Cambridge

Delegate Registration and Exhibitor/Sponsor registration is now open

Website:  https://www.rscbmcs.org/events/fragments/

Synopsis:  The aim of the meeting is to continue the focus on case studies in Fragment-Based Drug Discovery that have delivered compounds to late stage medicinal chemistry, preclinical or clinical programmes. Over three-quarters of the presentations will be focused on case studies.

33^rd Medicinal Chemistry in Eastern England (Hatfield symposium)

28^th April 2022, The Fielder Centre, Hatfield, UK

Delegate Registration and Exhibitor/Sponsor registration is now open

Website:  https://www.rscbmcs.org/events/mcee/

Synopsis:  Known colloquially as the "Hatfield MedChem" meeting, this a highly successful, long-standing, one-day meeting that runs annually. The scientific program will comprise of presentations showcasing medicinal chemistry case studies from tools to candidates, across a range of modalities, therapeutic areas, and target classes, as well as covering more general topics from the forefront of drug discovery of relevance to medicinal chemists.

2^nd Synthesis in Drug Discovery and Development meeting

4^thto 5^th May 2022, virtual

Delegate Registration and Exhibitor/Sponsor registration is now open.
Website:  https://www.rscbmcs.org/events/sddd/

Synopsis:  Synthesis is at the heart of drug discovery and development. The industry has increasingly demanded higher quality clinical candidates and has sought to exploit less druggable biological targets.  Successful programmes require the application of innovative synthesis in all stages of discovery and development. The medicinal chemist’s toolbox is also enhanced by the introduction of novel bioisosteres, often made available only through the application of new synthetic methods. This symposium aims to celebrate the crucial role of synthesis in the success of drug discovery and development.