DMCCB Newsletter #28 August 2024

After a rainy and stormy summer break the SCS/DMCCB are picking up their activities again. The Peptide Therapeutics Forum and the Swiss Summer School on Chemical Biology will already take place later this month, followed by the SCS Fall Meeting in early September and several other activities in fall. The DMCCB also started planning the DMCCB Basel Symposium 2025 which will take place in February of next year. We are still looking for topics of general interest for the medicinal chemistry and chemical biology community. Proposals for topics can be submitted either to Christoph Sager, Aleksandar Stojanovic or any other member of the DMCCB until August 31.

Your DMCCB

News from the DMCCB

New DMCCB president elected:

At the general assembly at the SCS spring meeting which took place last June in Basel, Dr. Fides Benfatti (Syngenta) was elected as new DMCCB president. She joined the DMCCB in 2017 and is following in the footsteps of Prof. Jean-Louis Raymond (University of Bern) who retired from his position as of January 2024. The new Vice President is Prof. Dennis Gillingham (University of Basel).

New DMCCB president elected:

Our DMCCB colleague Professor Dr. Yimon Aye, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, has been awarded the Klaus Grohe Prize 2024. The 50,000 euro award is one of the most highly endowed prizes for medicinal chemistry in Europe. It is awarded by the Klaus Grohe Foundation, which is part of the German Chemical Society (GDCh). Aye receives the prize for her pioneering research into cell communication and enzyme manipulation, with which she has advanced both basic research and practical applications in medicine. The award will be presented on September 1 by GDCh President Professor Dr. Stefanie Dehnen at the International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC-ISMC 2024) in Rome, Italy. You can find out more here.

Cancer Drug Discovery Research Award:
For the second time, the DMCCB will be awarding the Cancer Drug Discovery Research Award (supported by RGCC International) at the 2025 DMCCB Symposium. It honors outstanding achievements for Master students, PhD students or Postdocs at Swiss research institutions that are working in the field of cancer drug discovery research. Deadline for application is September 30, 2024. Learn more about this Award on the SCS website 

Activities of the DMCCB/SCS

Swiss Pharma Science Day 2024 «Challenges and Opportunities in Pharmaceutical Sciences». This is the annual event of the Swiss Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences (SAPhS, www.saphw.ch). It will take place on August 21, 2024 from 10:00 to 17:30 at the University of Bern (VonRoll Areal). Program and registration can be found on the event’s website.

The Peptide Therapeutics Forum 2024 will take place from August 22, 2024 from 09:00 to August 23, 2024 17:00 at the Biozentrum Basel. The event provides an innovative platform to exchange on the various aspects of drug development with a focus on peptides. Similar to previous events in the framework of Basel Life, presentations highlight important new insights regarding the drug discovery of peptides including examples of successful development candidates. This forum disseminates information on the latest news in the broad field of therapeutic peptides and enables networking of interested parties from academia and industries.
More details can be found on the event’s website.

Swiss Summer School 2024 on Chemical Biology provides PhD students, Post-Docs and Industrial Scientists from Switzerland and abroad an interactive seminar week in a beautiful alpine setting. It aims to expand their scientific horizon of latest developments, provide opportunities to present their work as posters and short presentations, and interact with speakers from Academia and Industry. It will take place from August 25 - 29, 2024 in Bergün (Graubünden). Registration for this event is closed. The next summer school will take place in 2026.

SCS Fall Meeting 2024: The SCS Fall Meeting 2024, is one of the largest annual research conferences held in Switzerland and offers a unique opportunity for all members of the community to share the results of their research initiatives and to connect with each other. It will take place on September 5, 2024 from 9:00 to 18.30 at the University of Fribourg (Department of Chemistry). Program highlights include two plenary sessions with for lectures of four SCS prize winners 2024. More information will be posted soon on the SCS website.