I am delighted to report that Dr Martine Keenan from Epichem Pty Ltd (Murdoch, Australia) was the winner of the MedChemComm poster prize at the recent 16th SCI/RSC Medicinal Chemistry Symposium that took place at Churchill College in Cambridge, UK, from 11 to 14 September.
The symposium was jointly organised by the Society of Chemical Industry and the Royal Society of Chemistry, and gave a splendid overview of some of the new strategies in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Research.
Martine’s winning poster entitled ‘Collaborative drug discovery for neglected diseases: novel compounds for the treatment of Chagas Disease’ presents the identification and development of two novel compound series active against the intracellular protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of the Chagas disease. Endemic in 21 countries across Latin America, the Chagas disease is responsible for more deaths in this region than Malaria, or any other parasite-born disease, and is currently spreading to developed countries including Australia, USA, Japan or Spain. This award winning work is the result of a collaborative drug discovery consortium established by not-for-profit, drug research and development organisation Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi).
Congratulations again to Martine on her award-winning work and to the collaborative drug delivery consortium for their active research on neglected diseases.