Research breakthroughs and social impact: Young scientists debate synthetic biology
Research breakthroughs and social impact: Young scientists debate synthetic biology
Tuesday, February 16,2016, 12:30–16:00
Amphipôle, University of Lausanne.
Emerging technologies have the potential to offer new solutions for society’s challenges but also raise concerns about safety and ethical implications. Synthetic biology is a maturing discipline aiming to modify, rebuild and design biological systems. Possible applications include production of biofuels in microalgae, synthesis of therapeutics in yeast cells or removal of pollutants’ from the environment using bacteria.
How will synthetic biology transform – medicine? – the environment? – industry? – society? – our concept of life?
Young scientists will explore these questions together with the audience. All are welcome to join in on the discussion!
Program
14.00 | Welcome Patrick Matthias, President Forum for Genetic Research |
14.05 | Studying life from the bottom-up: the new approaches of synthetic biology Jan Roelof van der Meer, University of Lausanne |
14.25 | Bio LOGIC, intracellular computing using dCas9 EPFL iGEM Team 2015 representatives |
14.40 | Round table discussion |
16:00 | End |
This session will be held in English. Participation is free of charge. For further information and registration: www.naturalsciences.ch/synbio2016
Presented by the Forum for Genetic Research, Swiss Academy of Sciences in association with the BIO•FICTION Science, Art & Film Festival and Life Sciences Switzerland LS2.
This event is part of the LS2 Annual Meeting 2016. http://ls2-annual-meeting.ch
David Spichiger, SCS
04.11.2015
The expanding Toolbox of Medicinal Chemistry, Oct 16, 2015
The expanding Toolbox of Medicinal Chemistry
From Chemical Biology to Clinical Applications
October 16, 2015
Parc des expositions et congres, Dijon, France
This symposium, jointly organised by the Société de Chimie Thérapeutique (SCT) and the Division of Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology (DMCCB) of the Swiss Chemical Society, will discuss significant advances that are part of the expanding scope of Medicinal Chemistry. A panel of experts will highlight these developments in the areas of chemical biology, metabolite pattern optimization, structural biology, analytics and clinical imaging tracers with speci c examples.
More Details
Conference Website: www.sct-dmccb2015.org
Programme
New Therapeutic Modalities to Unleash Pharma Drug Discovery
Dr Carlos GARCIA-ECHEVERRIA (SANOFI, Vitry sur Seine, France)
Learning New Things About Old Drugs: Sulfa Drugs and Tetrahydrobiopterin Biosynthesis
Prof. Kai JOHNSSON (SWISS FEDERAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY IN LAUSANNE (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland)
Using Aged Drugs in New Ways, the Concept of Boosting Antibiotics
Prof. Nicolas WILLAND (UNIVERSITY OF LILLE, Lille, France)
Uncovering and Mitigating Clearance in Early Discovery: New Technologies, New Opportunities, New Mindset
Dr Alfred ZIMMERLIN (NOVARTIS INSTITUTES FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH, Basel, Switzerland)
Discovery and Development of LC-MS/MS-Based Occupancy Tracers and Positron Emission Tomography
Radioligands
Dr Vanessa Nicole BARTH (ELI LILLY, Indianapolis, United States)
Radiotracer Development in the Era of Personalized Medicine: When MedChem Meets Nuclear Medicine
Prof. Roger SCHIBLI (SWISS FEDERAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (ETH), Zürich, Switzerland)
Organising Committee
Prof. K.-H. ALTMANN (SCS DMCCB & Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland)
Dr Y. P. AUBERSON (SCS DMCCB & Novartis, Switzerland)
Dr P. GEORGE (SCT & Independent Scienti c Expert & Adviser, France)
Prof. J.-L. REYMOND (SCS DMCCB & University of Bern, Switzerland)
Prof. J. SAPI (SCT & University of Reims-Champagne-Ardenne, France)
Prof. A. TARTAR (SCT & University Lille 2, France)
Symposium Secretariat
LD Organisation sprl
Scienti c Conference Producers
Rue Michel de Ghelderode 33/2
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Tel: +32 10 45 47 77 - Fax: +32 10 45 97 19
David Spichiger, SCS
27.04.2015
FMC 2015 - Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry, Antwerp, Belgium - Sep 14-16, 2015
The Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry symposium is co-organised on a biennial basis, as a collaboration between the Medi Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC).
Frontiers 2015 will take place in Antwerp, Belgium, from September 14-16, 2015. It will be jointly organised by EFMC, ACS and the local Dutch and Belgian organisers: the Medicinal and Bioorganic Chemistry Division of the Royal Flemish Chemical Society (KVCV, Belgium), the Société Royale de Chimie (SRC, Belgium), and the Section Medicinal Chemistry of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society (KNCV, The Netherlands).
This biennial meeting is a key symposium in its field with traditionally around 300 participants, from industry and academia. It 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.
Sessions
The following Sessions will be part of the Scientific Programme:
- Plenary Lectures
Session Chair: Koen Augustyns (University of Antwerp, Belgium) - Molecular Chaperones and their Therapeutic Potential
Session Chair: Brian Blagg (University of Kansas, United States) - Unexplored Chemical Space: Experiences from the European Lead Factory and the NIH Molecular Libraries Programme
Session Chair: Peter Molenveld (Mercachem, The Netherlands) - Emerging Advances in GPCR Research
Session Chair: Laurent Provins (UCB Biopharma, Belgium) - Emerging Topics
Session Chair: Hans Ulrich Stilz (Novo Nordisk, Denmark) - Non-Small Molecules
Session Chair: Steve Firestine (Wayne State University, United States) - Novel Strategies for Anti-Thrombotic Therapy
Session Chairs: Amy Ripka (WuXi Apptec, Unites States) & Amjad Ali (Merck, United States) - Kinetics and Thermodynamics of Ligand Binding
Session Chair: Laura Heitman (University of Leiden, The Netherlands) - Rational Design of Non-Oral Drugs
Session Chair: Jordi Gràcia (Almirall, Spain) - Academic Drug Discovery
Session Chair: Henk Timmerman (VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands) - Non-Small Molecules
Session Chair: Steve Firestine (Wayne State University, United States)
Call for Abstracts
All participants are invited to register and submit abstracts of scientific communications for poster presentations. The submitted abstracts will be reviewed for their acceptance by the Organising Committee. The accepted abstracts will be published in the book of abstracts distributed to all symposium attendants.
- Deadline for early bird fees is June 2, 2015
- Deadline for abstract submission for poster presentations is July 15, 2015
Find out more on www.frontiers2015.org
Scholarships to attend the European School of Medicinal Chemistry (ESMEC) 2015




The Division of Medicinal Chemistry of the Italian Chemical Society and the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry organise in Urbino, Italy, the 35th edition of the:
European School of Medicinal Chemistry (ESMEC)
EFMC Accredited School
June 28 - July 3, 2015 | Urbino, Italy
The Scientific Committee of the European School of Medicinal Chemistry (ESMEC- Urbino) and the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC) offer 13 (10 + 3) scholarships for the participation to the XXXV edition of the school, scheduled from June 28 to July 3, 2015.
The scholarships, covering the registration fee and the full board accommodation, will be assigned to PhD students enrolled in Doctoral Schools held in one of the member countries of EFMC, excluding Italy.
A Committee formed by Prof. Carlo De Micheli, the Director of ESMEC-Urbino, Prof. Koen Augustyns, President of EFMC, and Prof. Marco Mor, member of the School’s Scientific Committee, will carry out the selection on the basis of the candidate scientific CV.
This year the scientific programme includes the following topics:
- New avenues in pain therapeutics
- Novel Methods to investigate GPCRs-ligand interactions
- Photochemistry as an innovative synthetic tool
- Hot Topics
Applicants are invited to fill in the enclosed form and to send it along with the CV, a motivation letter and the abstract of the research project, preferably by e-mail, stating in the subject box "ESMEC Application" within March 21st, 2015 to:
Prof. Carlo De Micheli
Dipartimento di Scienze Farmaceutiche
Università di Milano
Via L. Mangiagalli, 25
20133 MILANO (I)
e-mail:
To find out more on the programme of this EFMC Accredited School, we kindly invite you to visit the website http://www.esmec.eu
Best regards,
Jordi GRÀCIA - EFMC Secretary
E-mail :
Jordi Gràcia, EFMC Secretary
10.02.2015
EFMC Yearbook 2015
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President, DMCCB of the Swiss Chemical Society

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.
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,

David Spichiger, SCS
19.01.2015
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