Dear Colleagues,

At the beginning of this new year, I am pleased to send you the electronic version of the official EFMC Yearbook 2015, "Medicinal Chemistry in Europe", which represents a valuable instrument for those interested in quick finding information related to the activities and composition of EFMC and her Member Societies.

I would like to invite you to have a look at the EFMC Yearbook 2015, to find out more on the framework and on EFMC's activities in 2015. Flip through the book or download the PDF, or scroll through the list of most important chapters of the Yearbook available below.

EFMC Composition and Objectives

• Objectives
• Executive Committee and Council
• EFMC Framework
• National Adhering Organisations

Call for Nominations EFMC Prizes

EFMC established the EFMC Prize for a Young Medicinal Chemist in Academia and the EFMC Prize for a Young Medicinal Chemist in Industry to acknowledge the scientific accomplishments of young medicinal chemists. Deadline for application / nomination is January 31, 2015.

Calendar of Events

List of events organised by the EFMC National Adhering Organisations 2015

10th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry - Small-Molecule Modulation of Protein-Protein Interactions (PPIs)

Protein-Protein Interactions (PPIs) lie at the heart of almost every physiological process and every disease. With a recently estimated number of 300,000 in humans, the possibilities for therapeutic intervention are significantly larger compared to ‘classical’ drug targets. While this potential is up to now largely untapped, some successful examples have shown that PPIs can be modulated by drug-like small molecules, natural products and peptides.Specific features of PPIs as drug targets - in comparison to conventionally addressing e.g. enzymes - will be discussed, followed by a broad overview of the field, techniques to discover modulators of PPIs,  and - in more detail - a number of case studies on successful PPI intervention will be presented. Speakers include a selection of top-scientists active in the field of PPI, both from industry and academia.

11th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry - Engineering of Biopharmaceuticals

The development of future biopharmaceuticals will depend on research at the interfaces between several scientific disciplines including organic chemistry, physical chemistry, biophysics, protein chemistry and molecular biology. The interplay between these fields will have a key role for improving our molecular understanding of peptides and proteins and thus for developing future drug candidates. This course will focus on strategies on how to design and engineer biopharmaceuticals and will provide participants with insight to this important field of bioscience, which are applicable in academic and pharmaceutical contexts. The course will cover several fundamental aspects of peptide chemistry methodologies, selective modifications of proteins, ligation chemistries and regioselective coupling reactions. The biophysical characterization of peptide and proteins will be integrated in the lectures. The course will also cover various methods of semi-synthetic and synthetic modifications of proteins with focus on the application to drug discovery. Finally the course will give an insight to therapeutic antibodies including screening, optimization an engineering aspects.Thus, various issues of development of biopharmaceuticals as well as discussions of different strategies to improve peptide and protein properties to biopharmaceuticals will be the primary focus of the course.

Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry

The Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry symposium is co-organised on a biennial basis, as a collaboration between the ACS (American Chemical Society) and the EFMC (European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry).This biennial meeting is a key symposium in its field with traditionally around 300 participants, from industry and academia. The Frontiers Meeting attracts a highly targeted audience composed of experts in drug discovery and development, in particular medicinal and synthetic chemists, together with scientists active in the fields of computer assisted drug design, biology, DMPK, pharmacology, early toxicology, as well as chemical and pharmaceutical development. The scientific programme for Frontiers 2015 will feature a plenary session, followed by sessions covering the latest advances in medicinal chemistry.

EFMC Young Medicinal Chemist Symposium - EFMC-YMCS

The EFMC Young Medicinal Chemist Symposium is an initiative of the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC). This one-Day Symposium, organised in connection with Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry 2015, has the aim of:

• creating a network of young European investigators in Medicinal Chemistry
• stimulating young European investigators in Medicinal Chemistry to share their scientific work with peers and inspiring leaders in the field
• creating competition and excellence in Medicinal Chemistry within Europe by selecting the European Champion in Medicinal Chemistry

EFMC International Symposium on Advances in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry - EFMC-ASMC'15

ASMC’15 is being organised by the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC) and ChemBridge Corporation, as part of the series of events which started with ASMC’04 Moscow, followed by two editions in St. Petersburg (ASMC’07, ASMC’11), one in Kiev (ASMC’09) and again back to Moscow (ASMC'13).This series of events have, since their start, been high points of the world’s chemistry events, each one with distinguished academic and industrial speakers, about 200 poster communications and 400 to 600 participants, representing more than 40 countries around the world.

Directory of Companies

An alphabetical list of pharmaceutical companies, as well as manufacturers and suppliers of products and services for Medicinal Chemistry in Europe.

Yearbook 2015

To download the complete version of the EFMC Yearbook 2015, please click on the link

Best regards,