RSC Medicinal Chemistry Blog

The 2018 MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship is now open for nominations.

Nominations will close 28 November 2017.

The recipient of the lectureship will receive a contribution of up to £1000 towards speaking at a conference in 2018.

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 2017.

Previous lectureship winners include:

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

Congratulations to Dr Laura H. Heitman from Leiden University, Netherlands, the recipient of the 2017 MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship!

The Lectureship was open to any candidate who received their PhD in 2007 or later and have made a significant contribution to medicinal chemistry in their early career. The MedChemComm Editorial Board then voted on a short-list of nominations.

Many Congratulations to Dr. Heitman for winning the lectureship. Due to current circumstances, Dr. Heitman will be looking to do her lectureship in 2018.

About Laura

Laura H. Heitman, PhD. is a tenured associate professor of Molecular Pharmacology at the Division of Medicinal Chemistry at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR, Leiden University), after being appointed as ‘tenure track’ assistant professor in January 2009. She obtained her PhD degree in April 2009 for her thesis on “Allosteric modulation of ‘reproductive’ GPCRs” in collaboration with Organon/MSD (Oss, The Netherlands). Her research interests are mainly focused on understanding and improving drug-receptor interactions, and more specifically, target binding kinetics and allosteric modulation of GPCRs. In the last couple of years, she has obtained several competitive research grants (e.g. IMI-Kinetics for Drug Discovery/K4DD), all allowing her to study these novel, clinically relevant and highly translational concepts for drug action. Her research activities have currently led to an authorship on over 50 papers in this field, including one in Science (2012) and one in Nature (2016).

The 2017 MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship is now open for nominations.

Nominations will close 14 November 2016.

The recipient of the lectureship will receive a contribution of up to £1000 towards speaking at a conference in 2017.

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 2016.

Previous lectureship winners include:

• Dr Alessio Ciulli (University of Dundee, UK)
• Professor Richard Payne (University of Sydney, Australia)
• Professor Patrick Gunning (University of Toronto, Canada)
• Professor Christian Heinis (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland).

Congratulations to Dr Alessio Ciulli from University of Dundee, UK, the recipient of the 2016 MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship.

The annual MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship is given to a researcher who has made a significant contribution to medicinal chemistry research in the early part of their career.

The Editorial Board have selected Dr Alessio Ciulli as this year’s recipient for his work tackling important biology with elegant chemistry; developing novel chemical tools to aid our understanding of BET bromodomain proteins and providing pioneering examples of understanding protein-protein interactions as a basis for discovering novel therapeutics.

On being told he had won Dr Ciulli said,

“I feel truly honoured to have been selected to receive the MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship this year, and privileged to join such a distinguished list of former winners. It is a recognition to the excellent work of many students and postdocs in my group who have made key contributions to our discoveries over the past few years. I am excited to be given the opportunity to present some of our latest results at a conference later in the year.”

Alessio will be presenting his lectureship at this year’s EFMC International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry in Manchester. Register now.

We are pleased to announce that nominations for the 2016 MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship are now open and we are looking for your suggestions.

Nominations will close 22nd January 2016.

The recipient will receive a contribution of up to £1000 towards speaking at a conference of their choice.

Qualification
The lectureship is open to candidates who received their PhD on or after December 31st 2005 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 to nominate
If you would like to nominate someone please email us (medchemcomm-rsc@rsc.org) with the following:

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

Additional supporting information, for example their CV, would be very much appreciated 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
The decision to award the lectureship will be made by a panel of MedChemComm Editorial Board members.

Previous Lectureship winners include:

• Professor Richard Payne (University of Sydney, Australia)
• Professor Patrick Gunning (University of Toronto, Canada)
• Professor Christian Heinis (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland).

Earlier this year Professor Richard Payne from University of Sydney, Australia, was announced as the the recipient of the 2015 MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship.

We are pleased to let you know that Richard will be presenting his talk entilted:

‘New ligation technologies for the rapid assembly of modified proteins‘

at the upcoming Chemical Protein Synthesis (CPS) Meeting in St. Augustine, Florida on Friday the 19th of June.

The meeting starts on the 16th of June  2015 and online registration for the meeting closes the 10th of June – so there’s still time to register to see Richard’s talk!

UPDATE: Prof. Payne’s talk was very well received at the successful Chemical Protein Synthesis Meeting, where he (left) was presented his lectureship by Professor Stephen Kent (right).

"It is a real honour to be awarded the MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship. I look forward to sharing some of our latest results at a conference later this year." Richard Payne, on winning the Lectureship

Congratulations to Professor Richard Payne from University of Sydney, Australia, the recipient of the 2015 MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship.

The annual MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship is given to a researcher who has made a significant contribution to medicinal chemistry research in the early part of their career. Nominations are received from members of the public and the recipient is chosen by a committee formed of members of the Editorial Board.

Richard will be presenting his lectureship at a conference of his choosing later this year.

About Richard

Richard Payne was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. He graduated from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand in 2002. In 2003 he was awarded a Gates Scholarship to undertake his PhD at the University of Cambridge, where he graduated with a PhD in 2006. After 18 months as a Lindemann Fellow at The Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla) he began his independent career (in January 2008) as a Lecturer in Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology at The University of Sydney. Since 2015 he has been a Professor of Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the University of Sydney.

Professor Payne’s research focusses on utilising the power of synthetic organic chemistry to interrogate biological systems and address problems of medical significance. He has made significant breakthroughs in the development of new methods for the chemical synthesis of biologically active modified proteins and in the discovery of novel lead compounds in the area of tuberculosis and malaria drug discovery.

As a result of his research endeavours he has been the recipient of several prestigious national awards including the Biota Medal in Medicinal Chemistry (2008), the Rennie Memorial Medal (2012), the Athel Beckwith Lectureship (2013), the Tregear Award for Peptide Science (2013), an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (2013), the Le Févre Memorial Prize from the Australian Academy of Science, and now the 2015 MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship.

Some of Richard’s recent publications

Synthesis and evaluation of phenoxymethylbenzamide analogues as anti-trypanosomal agents
Med. Chem. Commun., DOI: 10.1039/C4MD00406J, Concise Article
From themed issue New Talent: Asia-Pacific

Phosphate modulates receptor sulfotyrosine recognition by the chemokine monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1/CCL2)
Org. Biomol. Chem. DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02262A, Paper

Synthesis and immunological evaluation of self-adjuvanting MUC1-macrophage activating lipopeptide 2 conjugate vaccine candidates
Chem. Commun., DOI: 10.1039/C4CC03510K, Communication

Nominations for the MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship are now open. This annual Lectureship recognises an emerging scientist who has made a significant contribution to medicinal chemistry or a related field in the early part of their independent career.

To make a nomination, please contact the MedChemComm Editorial Office with the name and affiliation of the person you are nominating. Nominees must have completed their PhD on or after the 31st December 2004.

Closing date for Nominations is the 30^th June 2014

The decision to award the Lectureship will be made by a panel of MedChemComm Editorial Board members. The recipient will receive a contribution towards speaking at a conference. Previous Lectureship winners are Professor Patrick Gunning (University of Toronto, Canada) and Professor Christian Heinis (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland).

Congratulations to Professor Christian Heinis from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, who is the recipient of the 2013 MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship.

Professor Heinis receives the Lectureship in recognition of his research into drugs in the “middle space” between small molecules and biologicals, in particular for his work on cyclic peptide therapeutics.He will deliver the lecture at the 2014 EFMC International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry in Lisbon, Portugal.

The  annual MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship is given to a researcher who has made a significant contribution to medicinal chemistry research in the early part of their career. The recipient must also have published an article in MedChemComm. Nominations are received from members of the public and the recipient is chosen by a committee formed of members of the Editorial Board.        

Biography of Christian Heinis

Christian Heinis studied biochemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) where he also did a PhD in the research group of Prof. Dr. Dario Neri. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the group of Prof. Dr. Kai Johnsson at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne (EPFL) and in the group of Sir Gregory Winter at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, UK. In 2008 he was appointed Assistant Professor with tenure track for Bioorganic Chemistry at EPFL and since 2009 he is holding a professorship of the Swiss National Science Foundation. The general research interest of Christian Heinis is the development of novel and innovative therapeutic strategies using chemical and biological methodologies and tools. Christian is a scientific founder of the start-up company Bicycle Therapeutics.

Recent articles in MedChemComm by Christian Heinis

Phage display libraries of differently sized bicyclic peptides
Inmaculada Rentero Rebollo, Alessandro Angelini and Christian Heinis  
Med. Chem. Commun., 2013,4, 145-150

Strategies to prolong the plasma residence time of peptide drugs
Lisa Pollaro and Christian Heinis  
Med. Chem. Commun., 2010,1, 319-324