RSC Medicinal Chemistry Blog

We are delighted to welcome to the team Professor Jayanta Haldar of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore, India.

Jayanta studied at Presidency College, University of Calcutta before moving to the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for an M.Sc. and Ph.D.. In 2004, he took up a postdoctoral position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA with Alexander Klibanov. Subsequently, Jayanta returned to India to take up an Assistant Professor position at JNCASR, his current faculty, where he was made Associate Professor in 2015.

Professor Haldar’s group specializes in the development of novel antimicrobial therapeutics, coatings and surfaces, alongside novel nano-delivery systems for drugs. To find out more about his research, take a look at the group webpage, or read a few of his many publications:

Selectively targeting bacteria by tuning the molecular design of membrane-active peptidomimetic amphiphiles

Chem. Commun., 2018,54, 4943-4946, DOI: 10.1039/C8CC01926F

L-Lysine based lipidated biphenyls as agents with anti-biofilm and anti-inflammatory properties that also inhibit intracellular bacteria

Chem. Commun., 2017,53, 8427-8430, DOI: 10.1039/C7CC04206J

A review on cell wall synthesis inhibitors with an emphasis on glycopeptide antibiotics

Med. Chem. Commun., 2017,8, 516-533, DOI: 10.1039/C6MD00585C

Aryl-alkyl-lysines: small molecular membrane-active antiplasmodial agents

Med. Chem. Commun., 2017,8, 434-439, DOI: 10.1039/C6MD00589F

MedChemComm is very excited to welcome to the team our new Editor-in-Chief, Professor Gerhard Ecker. Prof. Ecker is the current head of the Pharmacoinformatics Research Group in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Vienna. His research interests include ligand- and structure-based drug design, focusing on transmembrane transport proteins and the prediction of on- and off-kinetics, as well as semantic data integration.

He completed his PhD at the University of Vienna under the supervision of Professor Fleischhacker and Professor Noe before taking a post-doctoral position with Professor Seydel’s group in Borstel, Germany.

Gerhard has previously held positions as President of the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry and vice-president of the Austrian Pharmaceutical Society.

He has published over 100 full papers, including:

Probing the stereoselectivity of P-glycoprotein-synthesis, biological activity and ligand docking studies of a set of enantiopure benzopyrano[3,4-b][1,4]oxazines
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 2586-2588

Open PHACTS computational protocols for in silico target validation of cellular phenotypic screens: knowing the knowns
Med. Chem. Commun., 2016, 7, 1237-1244

From linked open data to molecular interaction: studying selectivity trends for ligands of the human serotonin and dopamine transporter
Med. Chem. Commun., 2016, 7, 1819-1831

For more information, visit his lab group website.

Dr Matthew Fuchter is a Senior Lecturer in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry within the Synthesis Group at the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College.

He completed PhD research under the supervision of Professor A. G. M. Barrett, FRS FMedSci and postdoctoral studies at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia, where he worked with Professor A. B. Holmes, FRS.

Prior to his position at Imperial College he was the RCUK Academic Fellow in Cancer Medicinal Chemistry at the School of Pharmacy (University of London). He returned to Imperial College in July 2008 as a Lecturer in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in July 2012.

In 2014 he was awarded the RSC Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize, as well as being admitted to the Royal Society of Chemistry as a Fellow.

At Imperial College he is heavily involved in research at the interface of chemistry and medicine. For example, he is a Managerial Board member of the anti-cancer drug discovery group, a Research Board member of the Institute of Chemical Biology and co-Director of the MRes in Drug Discovery.

Recent Publications:

Design, synthesis and initial characterisation of a radiolabelled [¹⁸F]pyrimidoindolone probe for detecting activated caspase-3/7
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2015, 13, 5418-5423, Paper

Identification of 2,4-diamino-6,7-dimethoxyquinoline derivatives as G9a inhibitors
Med. Chem. Commun., 2014, 5, 1821-1828, Concise Article
From themed collection Epigenetics

Perspectives on natural product epigenetic modulators in chemical biology and medicine
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2013, 30, 605-624, Review Article

Andrea Cavalli is Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Bologna and Head of CompuNet at the Italian Istitute of Tecnology, Genova. Prof. Cavalli received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Bologna in 1999 and did postdoctoral work at SISSA (Trieste, Italy) and ETH (Zurich, Switzerland).

Prof. Cavalli’s research has combined computational chemistry with drug discovery, focusing on neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, and neglected tropical diseases. He has developed and applied computational tools and protocols to accelerate and enhance the discovery of novel lead and drug candidates. In particular, he has been a pioneer in the use of molecular dynamics simulations and related approaches to drug discovery. He is co-founder of a high-tech startup company (BiKi Technologies s.r.l.) focused on molecular dynamics and enhanced sampling in drug discovery. In an interdisciplinary effort, these approaches led to the identification and characterization of lead candidates within the framework of multitarget drug discovery and polypharmacology.

He is an author of more than 160 scientific articles published in high-ranked journals and inventor in several international patents. He has delivered numerous invited lectures and seminars at international congresses and prestigious institutions. In 2003, he was awarded the Farmindustria Prize for Pharmaceutical Research.

Koen Augustyns obtained his Master and PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the KU Leuven, Belgium in 1988 and 1992 respectively. After postdoctoral stays at the University of Antwerp, Belgium and the University of Tübingen, Germany he was appointed as Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Antwerp, Belgium.

His research has resulted in 135 papers (2727 citations, h-index 30) and 12 patents in the field of medicinal chemistry, mostly focused on the design and development of enzyme inhibitors in the fields of oncology and infectious diseases. Recently he has also been active in the field of activity-based probes and bioorthogonal chemistry. So far, he has supervised 20 PhD students and is currently heading an international research group of 25 PhD students and postdoctoral scientists. He has delivered over 30 invited lectures at international symposia and acted as promoter on over 60 research projects.

He was chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences from 2007-2012 and is currently vice-dean of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical, Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences at the University of Antwerp. Since 2002, he is the President of the Medicinal and Bioorganic Chemistry Division of the Royal Flemish Chemical Society (KVCV) in Belgium and he serves the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC) as Secretary (2009-2013), President-Elect (2014) and President (2015-2017). He is a member of the Commission on Innovation Policy of the Flemish Council for Science and Innovation, the Research Foundation Flanders and the Jury of the Prix Galien Belgium. He is and was a member of several international organizing committees of medicinal chemistry symposia, and was co-chair of the EFMC-International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry in 2010 in Brussels.

Recent Publication:

Selective inhibitors of fibroblast activation protein (FAP) with a xanthine scaffold
Koen Jansen, Hans De Winter, Leen Heirbaut, Jonathan D. Cheng, Jurgen Joossens, Anne-Marie Lambeir, Ingrid De Meester, Koen Augustyns and Pieter Van der Veken
DOI: 10.1039/C4MD00167B

Dr Mike Hann obtained his PhD in Organic chemistry at the City University in London in 1980 with Professor Peter Sammes. He then worked in the UK as a medicinal chemist at Roussel, Wyeth and GD Searle. During his time at GD Searle he had the opportunity to get involved with the emerging use of computational chemistry and molecular modelling in drug discovery.

He joined GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) at Greenford in 1986 as a computational chemist and after several mergers and a lot of fun science he became head of computational chemistry at GSK in the UK and then director of Biomolecular Sciences with responsibilities for x-ray crystallography, biophysics and protein mass spectrometry studies.

His current role continues to find him at the interface of chemistry and biology, where he says “all the interesting stuff happens!“, and involves promoting scientific exchange, excellence and innovation to improve drug discovery methodologies within GSK and with our external collaborators. He has published extensively on a wide range of subjects including the following highly cited publications. He is also a visiting adjunct professor in the department of chemistry at Imperial College London.

Past publications:

• Hann, Michael M.; Keseru, Gyoergy M. Finding the sweet spot: the role of nature and nurture in medicinal chemistry. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery (2012), 11(5), 355-365.
• Hann, Michael M. Molecular obesity, potency and other addictions in drug discovery. MedChemComm (2011), 2(5), 349-355.
• Hann, Michael M.; Leach, Andrew R.; Harper, Gavin.  Molecular Complexity and Its Impact on the Probability of Finding Leads for Drug Discovery. Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences (2001),  41(3),  856-864.

MedChemComm has new Editorial Board members.

Earlier this year we told you about some of the retirements from our Editorial Board, now we are pleased to introduce some new faces. We are delighted to welcome:

Professor Koen Augustyns (University of Antwerp, Belgium)
Dr Christopher Burns (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Australia)
Professor Andrea Cavalli (University of Bologna, Italy)
Dr Mike Hann (GlaxoSmithKline, UK)
Dr Yoshinori Ikeura (Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd, Japan)

We will introduce them all individually in a series of blogs, starting with this one.

Dr Christopher Burns

Dr Christopher Burns obtained his PhD in Organic Chemistry at the University of Melbourne in 1990. Following postdoctoral work at Pennsylvania State University with Prof Ken Feldman, he joined Pfizer (UK) as a medicinal chemist. After 5 years Chris returned to Australia where he worked in the field of biosensors for use in drug discovery, first as a Research Fellow at The University of Sydney, and then with biotech company Ambri.

In 2001 Chris joined Melbourne biotechnology company Cytopia to establish and lead the medicinal chemistry team and in 2006 he became Research Director. Over this time Chris led the discovery of two compounds that entered clinical trial: the orally active vascular disrupting agent lexibulin and the dual JAK1/2 inhibitor momelotinib. The latter compound, now being developed by Gilead Sciences, is currently undergoing multiple Phase II and III trials.

In 2010 Burns joined the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and has embarked on a number of medicinal chemistry and chemical biology projects currently underway. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and an Honorary Research Associate, School of Chemistry, BIO21, University of Melbourne where he lectures on anticancer drug discovery.

Chris recently contributed to our Epigenetics themed issue with his work on:

‘Evaluation of functional groups as acetyl-lysine mimetics for BET bromodomain inhibition’
DOI: 10.1039/C4MD00182F

Chris’ homepage: http://www.wehi.edu.au/people/chris-burns

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!

We are pleased to welcome Dr Ahmed Kamal to the Advisory Board of MedChemComm and look forward to working with him in the future.

Dr Kamal was born on 5th April, 1956 in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. He obtained his Masters degree in 1977 and doctorate in 1982 from Aligarh Muslim University, India. From 1983 he has worked as a Scientist at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, one of the leading chemical laboratories of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India. Between 1993 and 1994, he was a visiting scientist at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Since joining IICT, he has been involved in the pharmaceutical and medicinal chemistry of many different drug discovery programmes, both national and international, with excellent research outputs. Currently as well as being a leading scientist at IICT he is the Project Director of NIPER (National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research), Hyderabad.

His current research interests revolve around multi-disciplinary research programmes including organic synthesis, medicinal, combinatorial and green chemistry, and chemical biology. Focussing on:

• The design and synthesis of gene-targeting compounds as new and novel anticancer agents

• New chemical entities for antitubercular and antimalarial activity

• The development of new efficient synthetic methodologies

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of imidazo[1,5-a]pyridine–PBD conjugates as potential DNA-directed alkylating agents
Med. Chem. Commun., DOI: 10.1039/C2MD20219K, Concise Article

3-Diarylethyne quinazolinones: a new class of senescence inducers
Med. Chem. Commun., DOI: 10.1039/C2MD20302B, Concise Article

Synthesis of tetrazole–isoxazoline hybrids as a new class of tubulin polymerization inhibitors
Med. Chem. Commun., DOI: 10.1039/C2MD20085F, Concise Article

The first total synthesis of nhatrangin A
Org. Biomol. Chem., DOI: 10.1039/C3OB40252E, Paper

Inter- and intrastrand DNA crosslinks by 2-fluoro-substituted pyrrolobenzodiazepine dimers: stability, stereochemistry and drug orientation
Org. Biomol. Chem., DOI: 10.1039/C2OB25654A, Paper

Catalyst-free stereoselective cyclopropanation of electron deficient alkenes with ethyl diazoacetate
RSC Adv., DOI: 10.1039/C3RA42374C, Communication

An improved iron-mediated synthesis of N-2-aryl substituted 1,2,3-triazoles
RSC Adv., DOI: 10.1039/C3RA22485F, Paper

MedChemComm is delighted to welcome Professor Christa E. Müller (University of Bonn, Germany) as our new Associate Editor for Europe.

Christa is now accepting submissions so you can submit your next top research article to her!

Biography

Christa Müller studied pharmacy at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and received her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical/Medicinal Chemistry from the same university. After a postdoctoral stay with John W. Daly (1989-1990 and 1992) at the Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry, National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, she completed her habilitation thesis at the University of Tübingen in 1994, and became Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Würzburg University in the same year. Since 1998 she is full professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Bonn University. She is a co-founder of the Pharma-Center Bonn (www.pharmazentrum.uni-bonn.de), and has >250 publications in the field of medicinal chemistry and pharmacology.

Her scientific interests are focused on the medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology of purine-binding membrane proteins (purine receptors, ectonucleotidases) and lipid-activated orphan G protein-coupled receptors. Disease indications include neurodegenerative and inflammatory diseases and cancer. Her activities are ranging from basic research to collaborative drug development projects with pharma industry partners.

“MedChemComm has what it takes to become a leading journal of Medicinal Chemistry. It fills a gap since it differs from other med chem journals due to its wide scope and its unique format. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s exciting contributions and support!“