DMCCB Newsletter #5 - December 2016

Dear Members of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology,

Here is already the last newsletter of what has been a very intense year for the DMCCB. Among the 2016 highlights of the Division, the DMCCB Basel Symposium in May, the DMCCB session of the SCS Fall Meeting, 12th Swiss Course on Medicinal Chemistry in Leysin and the successful bid of the EFMC-ISMC 2020 for Basel have to be mentioned, as well as much more to discover in this newsletter.

We would like to thank you all for your continued support and wish you a very sincere

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We are looking forward to meeting you again in 2017, maybe at the Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry Symposium in Bern on February 12-15th?

News from the DMCCB

  • DMCCB Board elections: The elections of the board of the DMCCB took place on September 15th in Zurich, on the occasion of the SCS Fall Meeting 2016. All the members to be reelected, including the DMCCB President Yves Auberson (Novartis) and Vice-president Jean-Louis Reymond (University of Bern), received unanimous vote from the audience. Two new members integrated the board: Finton Sirockin (Novartis) took over the role of webmaster and Anaëlle Foucault-Dumas joined as a communication officer. The board now counts 12 active members; all contact details are available on our website SCG.ch.
  • The 12th Swiss Course on Medicinal Chemistry: This course is organized by the DMCCB on a biannual basis and took place in Leysin on October 9-14th. This year’s edition has been a real success with 86 participants from industry and academia, meeting for a dense program including lectures from renowned medicinal chemists, tutorials and networking opportunities. For more details, please check the course’s website.
  • The Nauta Prize was attributed to DMCCB member Prof. François Diederich for his outstanding contributions to the science of medicinal chemistry. Congratulations! You can read more about it on our web site.

Highlights of the SCS Fall Meeting 2016

On the occasion of the SCS Fall Meeting 2016 that took place on September 15th, 2016 on the Irchel Campus of the University of Zurich, the DMCCB held a session dedicated to Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology (endowed by Actelion Ltd). In this session, not less than 80 scientific contributions were presented, including 68 posters and 11 talks. A very fair mix of academic and industrial oral contributions was showcased, with 6 and 5 speakers from each domain respectively. On this occasion, several awards were distributed:

  • Martin Hans Bolli (Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd) was awarded the KGF-SCS Industrial Science Award 2016 “for his excellent contributions in medicinal chemistry culminating in the discovery and development of Macitentan, a drug for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension”.
  • Olivia Paula Schmidt (University of Zurich) was awarded the best oral presentation prize for her talk on “High kinetic stability of T-HgII-T and DNA polymerase inhibition”.
  • The best poster presentations prizes in Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology went to: Fabian Brockmeyer (Northeastern University) and Marc Heitz (University of Bern). Runners-up were Fahimeh Moradi-Afrapoli (University of Basel) and Isabel P. Kerschgens (University of Zurich).

Congratulations to all these scientists! More information about the session is available in the conference report published by the DMCCB in the October Issue of Chimia (pp. 736-737).

Upcoming Congresses and Symposia

  • LS2 Annual Meeting 2017 (Zurich, February 2-3rd, 2017): The LS² Annual Meeting brings together scientists from all nations and backgrounds to explore the large spectrum united under the umbrella of Life Sciences. The program will include renowned international speakers and will include dedicated satellite career sessions.
  • Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry Symposium (Bern, February 12-15th, 2017): This international symposium jointly organized by the DMCCB, the GDCh and DPhG will focus on new trends and success stories in targeted protein degradation approaches, immuno-oncology, liver diseases, CADD, hit and lead discovery, as well as a series of chemical biology and drug discovery highlights.
  • 24th Young Research Fellow Meeting (Paris, France, February 8-10th, 2017): The topics presented in this meeting will cover all aspects of research in medicinal chemistry including: structure-activity relationship studies, ADMET, imaging, drug vectorization, nanotechnologies, natural products, and synthetic methodology.
  • 13th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry (Oegstgeest, The Netherlands, April 23-26th, 2017): This course will provide a firm conceptual framework for the study of target binding kinetics. Tutorials and real life examples will assist the participants in the short course to grasp not only a basic understanding but also to bring home inspiring case studies from both an academic and industrial perspective.
  • EFMC International Symposium on Advances in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC-ASMC’17) (Vienna, Austria, August 27-31st, 2017): This meeting will combine medicinal and organic synthetic chemistry (each about 50%), with talks equally selected from industry and academia. The symposium will include an opening lecture, 26 invited lectures, 10 short communications selected from submitted abstracts, a large poster session and a commercial exhibition.

News from the European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC)

  • Presidency: On the occasion of the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC) Council (August 27-28th, 2016, Manchester), Yves P. Auberson (President of the DMCCB) was elected as the next EFMC President for 2018-2020.
  • EFMC-ISMC 2020: Basel, Switzerland, was selected as host of the XXVI EFMC International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC-ISMC 2020). This major assembly of industrial and academic medicinal chemists in Europe will be organized by the DMCCB in Basel on September 6-10th, 2020. Prof. Karl-Heinz Altmann (ETH Zürich) will be the Chair of the Symposium.
  • EFMC Prizes 2017: The call for nominations for the EFMC Prize for a Young Medicinal Chemist in Industry and the EFMC Prize for a Young Medicinal Chemist in Academia is now open and will close on January 31st, 2017. For more information, see the EFMC website.

Did you know…

  • If you want to make sure that you do not miss any important information from our DMCCB LinkedIn group, LinkedIn can prepare a very handy digest sent to you per e-mail!