How did you get interested in Medicinal Chemistry?

When I was studying chemistry, I had the exciting opportunity to perform a gap-year in industry which turnout out to be at Janssen. At the time I was working on Alzheimer’s disease and the potential impact of my work in addition to the company values increased my interest in medicinal chemistry.

I obtained my PhD at the University of Strasbourg under the supervision of Prof. Françoise Colobert, Dr. Jean-Pierre Djukic and Dr. Joanna Wencel-Delord. I graduated in October 2018. I was lucky to work on the hot topic of C-H activation, trying to use sulfoxides as chiral directing groups. Not only was I working on catalysis, but also total synthesis.

Where are you currently working and what is your current position?

I am currently working in Beerse, Belgium, as a Senior Scientist and team leader in the Discovery Chemistry department.

What do you like best about your work?

I’m constantly driven by trying to make a world without disease. My work has the potential to impact patients and it drives me every day to do my best. Besides, medicinal chemistry is a collaborative field, and every day is full of interaction and learning from my colleagues in different functions.

Which of your papers are you most proud of and why?

I enjoy collaboration in my work, and the papers I’m the proudest of usually result from collaborations. One example from my first year as a PhD student, I had the chance to give a talk at the JCO, an important conference held near Paris and gathering organic chemists from all around the world. After the talk, a research group engaged a conversation with me on the possibility to use our chiral auxiliary for their projects. Couple of years after, this nice collaboration gave a paper on sulfoxide-controlled aza-Piancatelli rearrangement.

What are the features of a successful PhD student or postdoc?

Curiosity and a collaborative mindset are two qualities that can help, not only during the PhD studies but during the whole career as a scientist.

What is the most embarrassing thing you have done in the lab while doing experiments, e.g. explosions?

Barely arrived at Janssen for a student internship, I started working on a challenging synthesis. After a few steps I realized that what I thought to be an impurity was in fact due to a two-carbon elongated starting material! Despite this misfortune, I learnt from my mistakes and since then I double check every product I use. 

What are your recommendations for a book, podcast, website, blog, YouTube channel or film?

One of my colleagues, Matthew Horwitz, is leading Synthesis Workshop (https://synthesis-workshop.com/). I highly recommend looking at this website which highlights named reactions, total synthesis but also the human side of chemistry. 

Which scientist do you admire the most and why?

That’s a tough question, as there are so many scientists who I admire even in my current work environment. But I would say Gertrude Elion. With Hitchings and Black, they brought the use of innovative methods for rational drug design. She also contributed to the development of drugs against leukemia, gout and malaria.

Which field of medicinal chemistry do you consider the most promising for the future?

I think that Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are and will be playing a critical role in our work, and it will certainly be interesting to see how medicinal chemists adapt to this emerging field. AI/ML can create a new revolution to be more efficient, and maybe help to advance emerging modalities like PROTACS.

After two years of online events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry (FiMC) 2023 conference took place as a face-to-face meeting again in the beautiful city of Vienna, Austria. Supported by the EFMC, the conference was organized by the Medicinal Chemistry Divisions of the German Chemical Society (GDCh) and the German Pharmaceutical Society (DPhG), together with the Division of Medicinal Chemistry of the Austrian Chemical Society (GÖCh), the Austrian Pharmaceutical Society (ÖPhG), and a local organization committee from the University of Vienna headed by Prof. Thierry Langer. The appealing program included 38 lectures by leading scientists from industry and academia as well as early career investigators. Overall, 102 posters were presented in two highly interactive poster sessions and the meeting gathered a total of 260 participants from 21 countries.

The conference started with the Medicinal Chemistry Highlights and Fresh Case Studies session, where recent work on KRAS^G12C and mutant KIT inhibitorsand TASK channel blockers was presented. In the following PhD Prize Award Ceremony Dr. Alaa Alhayek (Hirsch group, HIPS) and Dr. Li Gao (Thorn-Seshold group, LMU Munich) were awarded for their excellent work on pathoblockers and photoswitchable drugs, respectively. The day was rounded off with a session on New Chemistry and Modern MedChem Methods, a poster session and an informal get together. Highlights of the second day included a plenary lecture by Prof. Dirk Trauner on Adventures in Neuropharmacology, the Next Generation Drugs session organized by the NextGenMedChem group, and the prize ceremony for the Innovation Award, which was awarded to Dr. Matthias Schiedel in recognition of his pioneering work on intercellular GPCR ligands, fluorescent probes and PROTACs. Moreover, sessions like the Molecular Glues & Degraders and In Silico Solutions in MedChem as well as the Young Investigators featured a variety of excellent speakers. The second day of the meeting ended with another poster session followed by a great conference dinner. On the last day, the Translational Science Case Studies and RNA Modifying Enzymes sessions were succeeded by the Friedrich Stolz-Award ceremony, where Prof. Rolf Hartmann was honored for his outstanding achievements, especially in the field of steroid hormone biosynthesis inhibitors. After the two final sessions on Medicinal Chemistry Case Studies, three days of outstanding science ended with some closing remarks and the announcement of the poster price winners (Max E. Huber - University of Erlangen-Nürnberg; Lukas Schneider - University of Zürich; Tonia Kirschner - Technical University of Dortmund; Josef Braun- Technical University of Munich) and the NexGenMedChem best lecture award, which was given to Michael Hahn from Bayer for his presentation on TASK1/3 inhibitors.

The Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry 2024 conference will take place from March 17-20^th in Munich, Germany.