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Changes to the Editorial Board

06 Jan 2015

The turn of a new year brings with it several changes for MedChemComm and our Editorial Board.

Some members of the Editorial Board have reached the end of their terms as Editorial Board members and so have retired from their roles.

As of the 1st January 2015, Professor Gerhard Ecker, Dr David Rees, and Dr Uli Stilz have retired from the Editorial Board.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank David, Gerhard and Uli for all of their contributions to the journal over the past several years. Their invaluable input into the journal, since its launch in 2010, has been greatly appreciated.

We are pleased to say all three are keen to continue their support of MedChemComm and have accepted positions on our Advisory Board effective immediately. We look forward to continuing our relationship with them in their new roles.

Prof. Gerhard Ecker

Dr David Rees

Dr Uli Stilz

Some new faces will be joining the team and more details on exactly who these are will be released shortly – so watch this space!

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8th BMCS PhD Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Symposium

23 Dec 2014

On 12th Decemeber the Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Sector (BMCS) of the Royal Society of Chemistry held its eighth postgraduate symposium for PhD students and postdoctoral workers researching in biological or medicinal chemistry and related areas. The day consisted of 11 oral presentations (8 student and 3 keynote) and poster session.

This year’s symposium was a great success with around 150 participants attending, with an excellent scientific standard all around.

The BMCS judges awarded two prizes on the day; one for the best oral presentation and one for the best poster, with the winners recieving £300 and £150 respectively as well as each getting a year’s subscription to MedChemComm.

Congratulations go to:

Oral presentation winner: Charlotte Sutherell, University of Cambridge for her talk “Bromodomain Inhibitor Development and Testing to Evaluate the Therapeutic Potential of SMARCA4 in SWI/SNF Mutant Cancers”

Poster winner: Niall Igoe, University College London for his poster on “Epigenetic Drug Discovery: Small Molecule Inhibitors of Class IV Bromodomains”

Poster prize winner Niall Igoie being presented with his award

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Take 1…minute for chemistry in health

01 Dec 2014

Can you explain the importance of chemistry to human health in just 1 minute? If you’re an early-career researcher who is up to the challenge, making a 1 minute video could win you £500.

The chemical sciences will be fundamental in helping us meet the healthcare challenges of the future, and we are committed to ensuring that they contribute to their full potential. As part of our work in this area, we are inviting undergraduate and PhD students, post-docs and those starting out their career in industry to produce an original video that demonstrates the importance of chemistry in health.

We are looking for imaginative ways of showcasing how chemistry helps us address healthcare challenges. Your video should be no longer than 1 minute, and you can use any approach you like.

The winner will receive a £500 cash prize, with a £250 prize for second place and £150 prize for third place up for grabs too.

Stuck for inspiration? Last year’s winning video is a good place to start. John Gleeson’s video was selected based on the effective use of language, dynamic style, creativity and its accurate content.

The closing date for entries to be submitted is 30 January 2015. Our judging panel will select the top five videos. We will then publish the shortlisted videos online and open the judging to the public to determine the winner and the runners up.

For more details on how to enter the competition and who is eligible, join us at the Take 1… page.

Good luck!

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Q2 Top Ten most accessed articles

01 Oct 2014

During the months April – June 2014, the most downloaded MedChemComm articles were:

The synthesis and functional evaluation of a mitochondria-targeted hydrogen sulfide donor, (10-oxo-10-(4-(3-thioxo-3H-1,2-dithiol-5- yl)phenoxy)decyl) triphenyl phosphonium bromide (AP39)
Sophie Le Trionnaire, Alexis Perry, Bartosz Szczesny, Csaba Szabo, Paul G. Winyard, Jacqueline L. Whatmore, Mark E. Wood and Matthew Whiteman
DOI: 10.1039/C3MD00323J

Emerging classes of armed antibody therapeutics against cancer
Christian Hess, Dario Venetz and Dario Neri
DOI: 10.1039/C3MD00360D

The role of modern drug discovery in the fight against neglected and tropical diseases
Jeremy N. Burrows, Richard L. Elliott, Takushi Kaneko, Charles E. Mowbray and David Waterson
DOI: 10.1039/C4MD00011K

Discovery of BET bromodomain inhibitors and their role in target validation
S. Müller and S. Knapp
DOI: 10.1039/C3MD00291H

Identification of an inhibitor of the ubiquitin–proteasome system that induces accumulation of polyubiquitinated proteins in the absence of blocking of proteasome function
Caroline Haglund, Chitralekha Mohanty, Mårten Fryknäs, Padraig D’Arcy, Rolf Larsson, Stig Linder and Linda Rickardson
DOI: 10.1039/C3MD00386H

Ambient mass spectrometry technologies for the detection of falsified drugs
María J. Culzoni, Prabha Dwivedi, Michael D. Green, Paul N. Newton and Facundo M. Fernández
DOI: 10.1039/C3MD00235G

Affinity-based target identification for bioactive small molecules
Makoto Kawatani and Hiroyuki Osada
DOI: 10.1039/C3MD00276D

Fragment growing to retain or alter the selectivity of anchored kinase hinge-binding fragments
Charlotte E. Allen, Amanda J. Welford, Thomas P. Matthews, John J. Caldwell and Ian Collins
DOI: 10.1039/C3MD00308F

Two diseases, one approach: multitarget drug discovery in Alzheimer’s and neglected tropical diseases
F. Prati, E. Uliassi and M. L. Bolognesi
DOI: 10.1039/C4MD00069B

FP tethering: a screening technique to rapidly identify compounds that disrupt protein–protein interactions
Jean M. Lodge, T. Justin Rettenmaier, James A. Wells, William C. Pomerantz and Anna K. Mapp
DOI: 10.1039/C3MD00356F

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Recent HOT MedChemComm articles

25 Sep 2014

The following are HOT articles, as recommened by the reviewers of the articles. These have all been made free to access until 24th October:

Structure-based approaches towards identification of fragments for the low-druggability ATAD2 bromodomain
Apirat Chaikuad, Andrew M. Petros, Oleg Fedorov, Jing Xu and Stefan Knapp
Med. Chem. Commun., DOI: 10.1039/C4MD00237G, Concise Article
From themed collection Epigenetics

Gold compounds as aquaporin inhibitors: new opportunities for therapy and imaging
Andreia de Almeida, Graça Soveral and Angela Casini
Med. Chem. Commun., DOI: 10.1039/C4MD00265B, Review Article

A novel surface-coated nanocarrier for efficient encapsulation and delivery of camptothecin to cells
Rie Wakabayashi, Ryutaro Ishiyama, Noriho Kamiya and Masahiro Goto
Med. Chem. Commun., DOI: 10.1039/C4MD00179F, Concise Article
From themed collection In celebration of Seiji Shinkai’s 70^th Birthday

Peptide HIV fusion inhibitors: modifications and conjugations
Wei Liu, Jianjun Tan, Mohammadreza Mohammadzad Mehryar, Zhiping Teng and Yi Zeng
Med. Chem. Commun., 2014, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C4MD00214H, Review Article

3,5-Diamino-1,2,4-triazoles as a novel scaffold for potent, reversible LSD1 (KDM1A) inhibitors
Craig J. Kutz, Steven L. Holshouser, Ethan A. Marrow and Patrick M. Woster
Med. Chem. Commun., 2014, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C4MD00283K, Concise Article
From themed collection Epigenetics

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Medicinal Chemistry Residential School comes to Asia

15 Aug 2014

With a 40 year history in the UK, the Royal Society of Chemistry Medicinal Chemistry Residential School has trained some of the world’s leading medicinal chemists working in the pharmaceutical industry. Now, for the first time, this highly successful course will be coming to Asia – from 20-23 November, Shangai, China.

Do you want to develop your medicinal chemistry skills?

This 3-day course strengthens excellence in medicinal chemistry by highlighting best practice and facilitating understanding of the factors governing modern drug discovery.

What you will learn

The course covers all aspects of drug discovery. A full list of themes is on our website. These topics will be explored through a varied programme of lectures, case histories, and hands-on tutorial sessions.

Who you will learn from

This is a truly unique opportunity for discussions and networking with peers and internationally recognised leaders in the field. See our list of prestigious speakers.

Registration is now open. There are limited spaces available on the course so make sure you register as soon as possible.

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RSC Organic Division Poster Symposium 2014

04 Jul 2014

RSC Organic Division Poster Symposium 2014, headline sponsored by F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Ltd.

The poster symposium, for final year organic chemistry PhD students, will take place at The Royal Society of Chemistry, Burlington House, London on Monday 01 December 2014.

The symposium offers final year PhD students a chance to showcase their research to their peers, leading academics and industrial chemists, and is open to all branches of organic chemistry. The symposium has a tradition of being the most competitive and highly regarded organic chemistry symposium for PhD students in the UK and ROI and we would like to thank F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Ltd. for their generous support of the event.

There will be a first prize of £500, two runner-up prizes of £250, and a “selected by Industry Prize”. Industrial delegates will make this selection by considering the research’s potential for application in an industrial context; the winner will also receive a prize of £500.

Closing date for submissions is Wednesday 01 October 2014.
For more information and to submit your abstract go to http://rsc.li/organic-poster

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Make your journal work for you

10 Jun 2014

Want to know about the latest research we publish in MedChemComm? Want to be told about upcoming themed issues, or the most read articles, or other journal news?

Here are a few ways you can stay in touch with us and all that is happening:

Most recent articles

Be informed about the latest articles published on our website by adding us to your RSS Feed.

Issue alerts

Get the table of contents of the latest issue of MedChemComm sent direct to you when we publish the issue.

News alerts

By joining our news alerts we can let you know about:

Up-coming themed collections (print & electronic)
Top Ten most accessed articles
Changes to our Editorial Board
Important news for the journal

Twitter

We can also be found on Twitter @MedChemComm, add us and say hello.

And of course you can always come back to this blog to find out about our journal news.

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Kinase 2014

05 Jun 2014

A very successful Kinase 2014 was held on 19-20 May 2014 with some great talks and interesting perspectives being presented on the future of kinase inhibitor research.

Kinase 2014 Chinese Pharmaceutical Association delegation

Kinase 2014 CPA delegation

Eight VIP Chinese Pharmaceutical Association (CPA) delegates attended the Kinase 2014 held at the Babraham Research Institute in Cambridge. Three of the CPA delegates presented their research at the meeting which also included a lecture from Nathanael S Gray (Harvard), recent guest editor for Med Chem Comm themed issue “Chemical Biology for Target Identification and Validation”.

Along with the talks a series of posters were also presented. Two of these recieved Poster Prizes sponsored by the Chemistry Biology Interface Division (CBID) and MedChemComm.

Jeff Kropf (Gilead Sciences) won the MedChemComm prize for his research on the discovery of GS-9973, a selective and orally efficacious inhibitor of spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk).

Charlotte Griffiths-Jones (Astex Pharmaceuticals) won the CBID prize for her poster on fragment based drug discovery of selective inhibitors of fibroblast growth facter receptor (FGFR).

Jeff Kropf being presented with his poster prize

Charlotte Griffiths-Jones being presented with her CBID prize

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Medicinal Chemistry Winners of RSC Awards

06 May 2014

Congratulations to all of the recently announced Royal Society of Chemistry Prize and Award winners for 2014.

Below are the winners related to medicinal chemistry, taken from the full list of winners

Bioorganic Chemistry Award 2014 Winner

Professor Wilfred van der Donk, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

For his creative work on the chemistry, biosynthesis and mechanistic enzymology of the cyclic peptide and phosphonate classes of antibiotics.

Corday-Morgan Prize 2014 Winner

Professor David Spring, University of Cambridge

For his contributions to chemistry-driven drug discovery through his work in diversity-oriented synthesis and chemical biology.

Rita and John Cornforth Award 2014 Winner

Professor Chas Bountra, Structural Genomics Consortium, University of Oxford

For world leading collaborative research across the disciplines of structural biology, medicinal chemistry, chemical biology and enzymology towards understanding and exploiting the potential of epigenetics as a target family for future drug discovery.

Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize 2014 Winner

Dr Matthew Fuchter, Imperial College London

For his contribution to the study of epigenetic processes in disease and his insights into chiral aromatic compounds, particularly those with helical chirality.

Norman Heatley Award 2014 Winner

Dr Edward Tate, Imperial College London

For his contributions to the area of antimalarial drug discovery and for pioneering the application of chemical proteomics and its implementation in the identification of novel therapeutic targets

Jeremy Knowles Award 2014 Winner

Professor Gurdyal Besra, University of Birmingham

For his contributions to our understanding of the basic chemistry and biochemistry of the cell wall of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and his ground-breaking work in the area of tuberculosis T-cell antigens and the CD1 antigen presentation pathway.

George and Christine Sosnovsky Award in Cancer Therapy 2014 Winner

Professor Roger Griffin, Newcastle University

For his major contributions to the discovery of inhibitors of proteins involved in the cell cycle and DNA repair, particularly poly-ADP-ribose polymerase, DNA-dependent protein kinase and cyclin-dependent kinases.

To celebrate these, and all the other award winners, we are delighted to present this web-collection highlighting some of the best research by this year’s winners. Free access until 6^th June 2014.

Did you know?

An incredible 47 previous winners of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Awards have gone on to win Nobel Prizes for their pioneering work, including Harry Kroto, Fred Sanger and Linus Pauling. Indeed, one of the 2012 Royal Society of Chemistry Prize winners, Arieh Warshel, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last year.

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RSC Medicinal Chemistry Blog