RSC Medicinal Chemistry Blog

We are delighted to welcome our new Associate Editor Dr Susanne Müller-Knapp from Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany to the RSC Medicinal Chemistry Editorial Board! Read on to find out more about Susanne and her thoughts about the journal and her new role.

More about Susanne

Susanne Müller-Knapp is Chief Operating Officer at the Structural Genomics Consortium, SGC, Frankfurt and Director of Operations of the Chemical Probes Portal.

She obtained a PhD at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. After spending several years as postdoctoral researcher in the area of inflammation and gene regulation at the Karolinska Institute and at the DIBIT San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy, she joined 2004 the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), at Oxford University, where she coordinated the Epigenetic Probe Project and lead a group, focusing on the evaluation of novel chemical probes, cellular target engagement of these tool compounds and their biological roles. Her research now focuses on using chemical biology to dissect the role of specific targets in biology and disease with a main focus on cancer. In her role as Director of Operations for the Chemical Probes Portal, she focuses on providing data and knowledge on high quality chemical tools and establishing quality standards for chemical probes with diverse modes of action.

Susanne’s thoughts on our journal

We asked Susanne some questions about working with our journal, read on to see what she thinks.

What are your thoughts about RSC Medicinal Chemistry and the future of the journal?

“RSC Medicinal Chemistry publishes high-quality articles, adhering to rigorous standards to showcase compelling research in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. The journal takes a forward-thinking approach, offering a variety of engaging themed collections. I especially value its commitment to Open Science, a principle I strongly support.”

How do you feel about starting your new role as an Associate Editor for our journal?

“I am delighted to have been selected as Associate Editor. I am eager to work with the RSC Medicinal Chemistry team and help drive the journal’s ongoing growth and success. Being able to help shaping the future of medicinal chemistry by supporting emerging trends and staying at the forefront of ground breaking research and innovative drug discovery strategies will be both exciting and fulfilling.”

As an Associate Editor, what subject areas would you like to see in RSC Medicinal Chemistry?

“As a biologist by training, I am passionate about enhancing communication between chemists and biologists to promote better annotation and more effective use of small molecules, ultimately improving reproducibility in chemical biology. Bridging this gap is crucial for advancing the field, and I find the prospect of helping to shape high-quality content that enriches both scientific understanding and practical applications incredibly rewarding. This interdisciplinary dialogue has the potential to drive more impactful research and innovation across disciplines.”

You can find out more about the rest of our Editorial Board members on our website and submit your article to them today!

We are delighted to welcome our new Associate Editor Professor Sankar Guchhait from the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), India to the RSC Medicinal Chemistry Editorial Board! Read on to find out more about Sankar and his thoughts about the journal and his new role.

More about Sankar

Sankar K. Guchhait is a Professor in Department of Medicinal Chemistry at National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali, India. He did his PhD research at Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Kolkata. Following his postdoctoral research for four years at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, University of Illinois at Chicago, and University of California, Riverside, he started his research and teaching career at NIPER in 2007.

His research focuses majorly on medicinal chemistry, anticancer drug discovery, and synthesis of natural product-based and pharmaceutically important heterocyclic compounds. The research activities in his group made significant contributions to areas, especially medicinal chemistry strategies – Natural product-inspired, Scaffold-hopping, and Choice-based change approaches, Molecular medicinal insights, creating a new from clinical trial agents and drugs, and identification of target-specific unique pharmacophore motifs.

He is recipient of several honors and awards, such as the Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) Bronze Medal in 2022 and the Indian Chemical Society’s Professor D. Nasipuri Memorial Award in 2015.

Sankar’s thoughts on our journal

We asked Sankar some questions about working with our journal, read on to see what he thinks.

What are your thoughts about RSC Medicinal Chemistry and the future of the journal?

“RSC Medicinal Chemistry publishes quality articles and offers guidance and insight into the wonderful and fascinating diversity of evolving medicinal chemistry strategies and drug discovery research. The journal has the potential to become a leader and worldwide premier resource for medicinal chemistry education and research tools.”

How do you feel about starting your new role as an Associate Editor for our journal?

“In my new role as Associate Editor, I am excited and looking forward to working with the RSC Medicinal Chemistry journal team and contributing to the journal’s increasing growth.”

As an Associate Editor, what subject areas would you like to see in RSC Medicinal Chemistry?

“I would like to see the RSC MedChem journal covering more research articles on molecular medicinal properties insights into drug discovery research, in vitro pharmacodynamics, physicochemical and pharmacokinetic properties linking with molecular structures, rational design and investigation with analytical thinking, and use of advanced sophisticated instruments in the field.

By publishing articles on these subject areas, the journal would provide valuable research and educational knowledge resources and increasingly attract the chemists and pharmaceutical scientists, especially organic chemists that are interested in medicinal chemistry research.”

You can find out more about the rest of our Editorial Board members on our website and submit your article to them today!

We are delighted to announce that Professor Jian Zhang has joined RSC Medicinal Chemistry as an Associate Editor.

About Jian:

Jian Zhang is a Distinguished Professor and Head of Medicinal Chemistry & Bioinformatics Center at Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine in China. In addition, he is also Dean of the School of Pharmacy at Ningxia Medical University, a member of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council in China, and founder of Nutshell Therapeutics.

Professor Zhang has a track record of more than 200 publications in high-ranked scientific journals, including patents and patent applications, and numerous invited talks worldwide. He has received some awards such as ACS Excellent Research Advisor, Biomedical Innovation Award by Chinese Pharmaceutical Society, and One of China’s Top Ten Science and Technology Young Scientist in 2017. Jian’s research focuses on drug design, medicinal chemistry and chemical biology, addressing target identification and first-in-class allosteric drug discovery. Find out more about Jian’s research over on his webpage.

Submit your research to Jian now!

You can find out about all our Associate Editors and the full Editorial Board on our webpage.

Check out Jian’s recent Chemical Science publication below:

Discovery of cryptic allosteric sites using reversed allosteric communication by a combined computational and experimental strategy
Duan Ni, Jiacheng Wei, Xinheng He, Ashfaq Ur Rehman, Xinyi Li, Yuran Qiu, Jun Pu, Shaoyong Lu and Jian Zhang
Chem. Sci., 2021, 12, 464-476

We are delighted to announce that Professor Mike Waring has joined the RSC Medicinal Chemistry Editorial Board as our newest Editor-in-Chief!

Mike said about joining as Editor-in-Chief: “RSC Medicinal Chemistry is one of the premier medicinal chemistry journals and we look forward to continuing to publish cutting edge science with the highest standards of rigour. I hope that the work published in the journal will lead to the continued dissemination and evolution of best practice in our discipline that will drive our ability to deliver new therapies more effectively.”

About Mike:

Mike Waring is Chair of Medicinal Chemistry at Newcastle University and Head of Chemistry for the Cancer Research UK Newcastle Drug Discovery Unit.  He was previously Principal Scientist in Medicinal Chemistry at AstraZeneca. He has worked mainly in the areas of diabetes and oncology and his work has contributed to the discovery of 14 drug candidates, including the marketed EGFR inhibitor osimertinib (Tagrisso™). He has made significant contributions to the field in many areas, perhaps most notably property-based optimisation, covalent inhibition, novel binding modes and new methods of hit generation.  He is a 2018 American Chemical Society Hero of Chemistry, recipient of the 2017 RSC Malcolm Campbell Medal, and an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

For more information, visit Mike’s webpage, and check out some of his publications from the RSC below.

Microwave-assisted synthesis of 4-oxo-2-butenoic acids by aldol-condensation of glyoxylic acid
Mélanie Uguen, Conghao Gai, Lukas J. Sprenger, Hang Liu, Andrew G. Leach and Michael J. Waring
RSC Adv., 2021, 11, 30229-30236

Highly efficient on-DNA amide couplings promoted by micelle forming surfactants for the synthesis of DNA encoded libraries
James H. Hunter, Matthew J. Anderson, Isaline F. S. F. Castan, Jessica S. Graham, Catherine L. A. Salvini, Harriet A. Stanway-Gordon, James J. Crawford, Andrew Madin, Garry Pairaudeau and Michael J. Waring
Chem. Sci., 2021, 12, 9475-9484

The structure-guided discovery of osimertinib: the first U.S. FDA approved mutant selective inhibitor of EGFR T790M
Sam Butterworth, Darren A. E. Cross, M. Raymond V. Finlay, Richard A. Ward and Michael J. Waring
Med. Chem. Commun., 2017, 8, 820-822

Discovery of a series of 2-(pyridinyl)pyrimidines as potent antagonists of GPR40
Michael J. Waring, David J. Baker, Stuart N. L. Bennett, Alexander G. Dossetter, Mark Fenwick, Rob Garcia, Jennie Georgsson, Sam D. Groombridge, Susan Loxham, Philip A. MacFaul, Katie G. Maskill, David Morgan, Jenny Morrell, Helen Pointon, Graeme R. Robb, David M. Smith, Stephen Stokes and Gary Wilkinson
Med. Chem. Commun., 2015, 6, 1024-1029