RSC Medicinal Chemistry Blog

Congratulations to Professor Michael Bollong, recipient of the 2025 RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship. 

The annual RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship recognises a researcher who has made a significant contribution to medicinal chemistry and drug discovery in their independent academic career, and is open to candidates who received their PhD within the last 10 years. The RSC Medicinal Chemistry Editorial Board have selected Prof  Michael Bollong, from the Scripps Research, USA, as the winner this year. Michael’s research uses high throughput small molecule screens coupled with downstream target identification experiments to identify new drug-like molecules and ligandable targets to study. His group therapeutically targets the biological responses governing mammalian regeneration and cell stress signalling.

When Michael was informed of his nomination, he said:

“I am deeply honoured to be named the recipient of the 2025 RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship. I would principally like to thank my wonderful colleagues at Scripps and Calibr-Skaggs, without whom, the work for which this award was given would not be possible. I hope that by my receiving this award, it brings greater attention to the need in academia and industry alike to focus on the generation of new regenerative medicines for treating age related disease, an area in which we, as medicinal chemists, have a key role in advancing.”

Prof Bollong’s lectureship will be held at a conference later this year, more details to follow. To stay up to date with future announcements, follow us on X (formerly Twitter): @rsc_medchem, LinkedIn: Chemical Biology RSCChemBio and sign-up to our news alerts.

More about Michael

Michael J. Bollong, Ph.D., earned his BS in biochemistry and cell biology from University of California, San Diego (2009) and his PhD in chemistry from Scripps Research (2016) under the mentorship of Pete Schultz. He was the inaugural Scripps Fellow (2017), an early independence principal investigator position. In 2020, he became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Scripps Research and is currently the Early Career Endowed Roon Chair for Cardiovascular Research as an Associate Professor. His laboratory uses chemical genetics as a discovery paradigm, focusing on the identification and development of drug-like small molecules with novel biological functions. One key focus of his laboratory has been identifying molecules which promote reparative organ regeneration, a largely unmet challenge in the field of regenerative medicine. 

Browse Michael’s recent articles in RSC Chemical Biology:

Metabolically activated proteostasis regulators that protect against erastin-induced ferroptosis (Open Access) Gabriel M. Kline, Nicole Madrazo, Christian M. Cole, Meera Pannikkat, Michael J. Bollong, Jessica D. Rosarda, Jeffery W. Kelly* and R. Luke Wiseman* RSC Chem. Biol., 2024, 5, 866-876
	A covalent inhibitor of the YAP–TEAD transcriptional complex identified by high-throughput screening (Open Access) Kayla Nutsch, Lirui Song, Emily Chen, Mitchell Hull, Arnab K. Chatterjee, Jian Jeffery Chen* and Michael J. Bollong* RSC Chem. Biol., 2023, 4, 894-905

Find out more about Michael and follow his lab’s X here at @MichaelBollong.

We are delighted to welcome nominations for the 2023 RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship

This Lectureship celebrates outstanding early career researchers who have made significant contributions in the fields of medicinal chemistry and drug discovery in their independent careers.

• This award is presented annually
• The nominations are shortlisted, and the winner is selected by a judging panel made up of the RSC Medicinal Chemistry Editorial Board
• The recipient of this award receives the opportunity to present at a relevant high-profile international meeting with a contribution of up to £1,000 to cover associated costs

Nominations will close 28 October 2022

Past winners of the RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship (previously named the MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship) include:

• Dr Nir London (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel) – 2022
• Dr Jacob Bush (GSK and The Francis Crick Institute, UK) – 2021
• Dr Chandradhish Ghosh (Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany) – 2020
• Dr Amanda Hargrove (Duke University, USA) – 2019
• Dr Gonçalo Bernardes (University of Cambridge, UK) – 2018
• Dr Laura H. Heitman (Leiden University, Netherlands) – 2017
• Dr Alessio Ciulli (University of Dundee, UK) – 2016
• Professor Richard Payne (University of Sydney, Australia) – 2015
• Professor Christian Heinis (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland) – 2013

Register here to watch a recording of our recent Lectureship webinar featuring our 2021 and 2022 winners, Dr Nir London and Dr Jacob Bush.

Find out more on how to nominate below 

Who can be nominated

The RSC Medicinal Chemistry Lectureship is awarded through a process whereby nominations of candidates are invited from our community.

Open to all researchers globally

As part of the Royal Society of Chemistry, we believe we have a responsibility to promote inclusivity and accessibility to improve diversity. Where possible, we encourage each nominator to consider nominating candidates of all genders, races, and backgrounds. Please see the RSC’s approach to Inclusion and Diversity.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the RSC Medicinal Chemistry Lectureship, the candidate must:

• Be an active medicinal chemistry researcher, either in academia or industry, carrying out research that is within the scope of the journal
• Be an independent researcher (this includes Research Associates or Fellows who run their own research group; PhD students and postdocs are not eligible)
• Be at an early stage of their independent career (this should typically be within 12 years of completing their PhD, but appropriate consideration will be given to those who have taken a career break, followed a different career path or work in systems where their time period to independence may vary). Please contact the Editorial Office if you have any queries

How to nominate

Nominations can be made by anyone and must be sent via email to the Editorial Office. Self-nominations are not permitted. All nominators will be asked to confirm that, to the best of their knowledge, their nominee’s professional standing is such that there is no confirmed or potential impediment to them receiving the Lectureship.

To nominate a candidate, please provide:

• The name, affiliation, website URL and contact details of the nominee
• An up-to-date nominee CV (up to 3 pages in length is recommended)
• A letter of recommendation (500-word limit). Statements as to why a nominee is eligible if they are beyond 12 years of their PhD completion, for instance due to career breaks, will not count towards this word limit
• Contact details for a confirmed supporting referee. Please inform your referee of the nomination – the Editorial Office will request a supporting letter of recommendation (500-word limit) from this referee once the nomination has been received, where the referee should comment in detail on specific contributions/achievements/potential. Referees must state their relationship with the nominee e.g. this could be the nominee’s postdoc or PhD supervisor, line manager, project manager or academic mentor

Assessment process and selection panel

All eligible nominated candidates will be assessed by a judging panel made up of the RSC Medicinal Chemistry Editorial Board. Any Editorial Board members who have a conflict of interest will be removed from the selection panel.

The judging panel will consider the following core criteria:

• Excellence in research, as evidenced with reference to originality and impact
• Quality of publications/patents/software
• Innovation
• Professional standing
• Independence
• Collaborations and teamwork
• Evidence of promising potential
• Other indicators of esteem indicated by the nominator or referee

In any instance where multiple nominees are judged equally meritorious in relation to these core criteria, the judging panel will use information provided on the nominee’s broader contribution to the chemistry community as an additional criterion. Examples of this could include:

• Involvement with RSC community activities
• Teaching/demonstrating
• Effective mentorship
• Service on boards, committees or panels
• Leadership in the scientific community
• Peer-reviewing
• Promotion of diversity and inclusion
• Advocacy for chemistry
• Public engagement and outreach

Congratulations to Dr Nir London, recipient of the 2022 RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship. 

The annual RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship recognises a researcher who has made a significant contribution to medicinal chemistry and drug discovery in their independent academic career, and is open to candidates who received their PhD within the last 10 years. The RSC Medicinal Chemistry Editorial Board have selected Dr. London, from the Weizmann Institute of Science, as the winner this year.

“I am honoured and humbled to receive the 2022 RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship. This would not have been possible without the support of my mentors and colleagues throughout the years and the hard work of my students, post-docs and trainees. I look forward to continued interactions with the wonderful medicinal chemistry community.” – Dr Nir London

Dr London’s lectureship will be held virtually at date to be confirmed. To stay up to date with future announcements, follow us on Twitter @rsc_medchem and sign-up to our news alerts.

More about Nir

Dr. Nir London completed his PhD in computational structural biology at the Hebrew University in 2012. He then pursued a post-doctoral fellowship with Brian Shoichet at UCSF where he developed a pioneering virtual screening platform for covalent inhibitor discovery. In 2015 Dr. London joined the Weizmann Institute of Science, where he is currently the Alan and Laraine Fischer Career Development Chair in the Dept. of Chemical and Structural Biology. Dr. London’s lab is focused on covalent chemical biology and drug discovery and is developing new technologies to discover and functionalize covalently acting compounds. His honors include amongst others the Alon fellowship, the EFMC award for young medicinal chemist in academia and the ICBS award for young chemical biologist.

Find out more about Nir and the work his lab is doing on their webpage.

Dr Jacob Bush

Congratulations to Dr Jacob Bush, recipient of the 2021 RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship.

The Lectureship was open to any candidate who received their PhD in 2011 or later and has made a significant contribution to medicinal chemistry in their early career. The RSC Medicinal Chemistry Editorial Board selected Dr. Bush, from GSK, from a short-list of nominees.

Many congratulations to Dr. Bush for winning the lectureship.

When he was informed of his selection, Dr. Bush said:

“It’s a privilege to receive this lectureship as it recognises cutting edge work in chemical biology by a team of outstanding scientists both at GSK and at our academic partner institutions.  Building these innovative technologies for agile target validation is key to GSK’s differentiated approach to identify, select and develop more genetically validated targets which have higher likelihood of success.”

About Dr Bush:

Dr Jacob Bush works in medicinal chemistry & chemical biology at GSK, leading the development of new technologies to accelerate drug discovery, in particular through innovations in chemical biology and artificial intelligence (AI). He works between GSK, where he is group leader in the chemical biology department and The Francis Crick Institute, where he is an active member of the leadership team of the GSK-Crick LinkLabs collaboration.

We are pleased to welcome nominations for the 2021 RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship. The Lectureship celebrates early career researchers who have made significant contributions in the fields of medicinal chemistry and drug discovery.

Nominations will close 30 November 2020.

The recipient of the lectureship will receive a contribution of up to £1000 towards speaking at a conference in 2021. We recognise many researchers’ travel plans for 2021 are uncertain, and are flexible in accommodating speaking engagements at digital conferences.

Eligibility:
The lectureship is open to candidates who received their PhD in 2011 or later and who have made a significant contribution to medicinal chemistry in their early career, particularly if they have brought new ideas to drug discovery.

How you can nominate:
If you would like to nominate someone please email medchem-rsc@rsc.org with the following details:

• Their name
• Their affiliation
• At least one paragraph explaining their achievements and why you think they should be considered

Additional supporting information, for example their CV, is very helpful in making a decision but is not mandatory for making a nomination.

Self-nominations are accepted but must be supported by a letter of support from your Head of Department or similar person at your institute.

Selection:
All qualified nominations will be considered and a short-list of candidates will be selected based on the information provided at nomination. The RSC Medicinal Chemistry Editorial Board will then vote to select the recipient and the winner will be announced in early 2021.

Past winners of the RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship (previously named the MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship) include:

• Dr Chandradhish Ghosh (Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces) – 2020
• Dr. Amanda Hargrove (Duke University, USA) – 2019
• Dr. Gonçalo Bernardes (University of Cambridge, UK) – 2018
• Dr Laura H. Heitman (Leiden University, Netherlands) – 2017
• Dr Alessio Ciulli (University of Dundee, UK) – 2016
• Professor Richard Payne (University of Sydney, Australia) – 2015

Congratulations to Dr. Chandradhish Ghosh, the recipient of the 2020 RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship!

The Lectureship was open to any candidate who received their PhD in 2010 or later and has made a significant contribution to medicinal chemistry in their early career. The RSC Medicinal Chemistry Editorial Board selected Dr. Ghosh, from Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany, from a short-list of nominees.

Many congratulations to Dr. Ghosh for winning the lectureship.

When he was informed of his selection, Dr. Ghosh said:

“I feel humbled to be recognized by scientists who inspire me. It motivates me to strive harder to solve the problems of human diseases. This would not have been possible without the support of fantastic mentors, colleagues, collaborators, teachers, friends and family.”

About Chandradhish

Dr. Chandradhish Ghosh performed his doctoral studies at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, under the supervision of Prof. Jayanta Haldar, after first earning his MSc in Chemistry at the University of Delhi. Since 2017, he has been working at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, in the group of Prof. Peter H. Seeberger. His current work focusses on targeting neglected tropical diseases.

His doctoral work on membrane-active small molecules against drug-resistant pathogens has led to an anti-Ebola drug candidate. He has contributed to the sum of knowledge in the field by the publication of several highly cited reviews. He has won several awards, including the prestigious Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award in 2015.

To show the range of his scientific work, some of Dr. Ghosh’s recent works are below:

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

Med. Chem. Commun., 2017, 8, 516-533

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

The 2020 RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship is now open for nominations. The Lectureship celebrates early career researchers who have made significant contributions in the fields of medicinal chemistry and drug discovery.

Nominations will close 31 January 2020.

The recipient of the lectureship will receive a contribution of up to £1000 towards speaking at a conference in 2020.

Qualification
The lectureship is open to candidates who received their PhD in 2010 or later and who have made a significant contribution to medicinal chemistry in their early career, particularly if they have brought new ideas to drug discovery.

How you can nominate
If you would like to nominate someone please email us (medchem-rsc@rsc.org) with the following details:

• Their name
• Their affiliation
• At least one paragraph explaining their achievements and why you think they should be considered

Additional supporting information, for example their CV, is very helpful in making a decision but is not mandatory for making a nomination.

Self-nominations are accepted but must be supported by a letter of support from your Head of Departments or similar person at your institute.

Selection
All qualified nominations will be considered and a short-list of candidates with be selected based on the information provided at nomination. The RSC Medicinal Chemistry Editorial Board will then vote to select the recipient and the winner will be announced in spring 2020.

Past winners of the RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship (previously named the MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship) include:

• Dr. Amanda Hargrove (Duke University, USA) – 2019
• Dr. Gonçalo Bernardes (University of Cambridge, UK) – 2018
• Dr Laura H. Heitman (Leiden University, Netherlands) – 2017
• Dr Alessio Ciulli (University of Dundee, UK) – 2016
• Professor Richard Payne (University of Sydney, Australia) – 2015
• Professor Christian Heinis (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland) – 2013
• Professor Patrick Gunning (University of Toronto, Canada) – 2012

The 2019 MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship is now open for nominations.

Nominations will close 22 November 2018.

The recipient of the lectureship will receive a contribution of up to £1000 towards speaking at a conference in 2019.

Qualification
The lectureship is open to candidates who received their PhD in 2009 or later and who have made a significant contribution to medicinal chemistry in their early career, particularly if they have brought new ideas to drug discovery.

How you can nominate
If you would like to nominate someone please email us (medchemcomm-rsc@rsc.org) with the following details:

• Their name
• Their affiliation
• At least one paragraph explaining their achievements and why you think they should be considered

Additional supporting information, for example their CV, is very helpful in making a decision but is not mandatory for making a nomination.

Self-nominations are accepted but must be supported by a letter of support from your Head of Departments or similar person at your institute.

Selection
All qualified nominations will be considered and a short-list of candidates with be selected based on the information provided at nomination. The MedChemComm Editorial Board will then vote to select the recipient and the winner will be announced in late 2018.

Previous lectureship winners include:

• Dr. Gonçalo Bernardes (University of Cambridge, UK) – 2018
• Dr Laura H. Heitman (Leiden University, Netherlands) – 2017
• Dr Alessio Ciulli (University of Dundee, UK) – 2016
• Professor Richard Payne (University of Sydney, Australia) – 2015
• Professor Christian Heinis (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland) – 2013
• Professor Patrick Gunning (University of Toronto, Canada) – 2012