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Winner of the 2024 RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship

13 Mar 2024

Congratulations to Professor Luca Laraia, recipient of the 2024 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 Laraia, from the the Technical University of Denmark, as the winner this year. Prof Laraia’s research focuses on the chemical biology of sterol-mediated processes, developing small molecule and protein regulators of cholesterol biosynthesis, metabolism and trafficking, with applications in a range of diseases.

“I am delighted to receive the RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship. This is a fantastic recognition of the multidisciplinary work that characterises medicinal chemistry, carried out by our talented group members over the last few years. I am excited to continue to carry out and highlight our work on targeting sterol-mediated processes.” – Prof Luca Laraia

Prof Laraia’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 Luca

Luca Laraia was born in Rome (Italy) and grew up in Vienna (Austria) before moving to London for his MSci degree in chemistry at Imperial College London. He carried out a PhD in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology funded by CRUK at the University of Cambridge, in the labs of Professors David Spring and Ashok Venkitaraman. He then moved to Dortmund as an Alexander von Humboldt post-doctoral research fellow to work at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology with Professor Herbert Waldmann, before joining the Department of Chemistry at the Technical University of Denmark as an Assistant Professor. Since April 2021 he is an Associate Professor at the same department, leading a research group at the interface of chemistry and biology, focusing on the development of chemical tools and potential therapeutic leads to study and modulate lipid homeostasis. Luca is the recipient of an ERC Starting Grant (2021) and a Hallas Møller Emerging Investigator (2021) from the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

Check out Luca’s recent publications in Chemical Science and ChemComm:

Identification of non-conventional small molecule degraders and stabilizers of squalene synthase (Open Access)

Joseph G. F. Hoock, Cecilia Rossetti, Mesut Bilgin, Laura Depta, Kasper Enemark-Rasmussen, John C. Christianson and Luca Laraia*

Chem. Sci., 2023, 14, 12973-12983

Redshifted and thermally bistable one-way quantitative hemithioindigo-derived photoswitches enabled by isomer-specific excited state intramolecular proton transfer

Mikkel Krell-Jørgensen, Habiburrahman Zulfikri, Magnus Grage Bonnevie, Frederik Simonsen Bro, Asmus Ougaard Dohn and Luca Laraia*

Chem. Commun., 2023, 59, 563-566

Find out more about Luca and follow his lab’s X here at @laraialab.

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Winner of the 2023 RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship

23 May 2023

Congratulations to Dr Christoph Nitsche, recipient of the 2023 RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship.

“I am honoured to receive the RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship, which I owe first and foremost to my students and postdocs for their tireless efforts over the last couple of years. I was fortunate enough to have had great mentors who inspired me to think outside the box and build interdisciplinary bridges. I am most grateful for the generous support I have received from foundations and funding agencies throughout my early career, as they have provided me the freedom to pursue my ideas.” – Dr Christoph Nitsche

Dr Nitsche’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 Christoph

Dr Nitsche is Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. He completed his PhD in medicinal chemistry at Heidelberg University, Germany, in 2014 and was awarded a Feodor Lynen Fellowship to undertake postdoctoral work in structural biology at the ANU from 2015 to 2018. After a short period at the Free University of Berlin, he received an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award in 2019 to return to the ANU as a group leader with the goal to accelerate drug discovery. His most recent honours include the John Wade Early Career Researcher Award, the Peter Schwerdtfeger Award, and the Australian Research Award as top researcher in the field of Medicinal Chemistry. Dr Nitsche’s interdisciplinary research program focuses on infectious diseases, bioorthogonal chemistry, and peptide and protein modification.

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

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Introducing RSC Medicinal Chemistry Associate Editor, Professor Cynthia Dowd

10 Aug 2022

We are delighted to announce that Professor Cynthia Dowd has joined RSC Medicinal Chemistry as an Associate Editor.

About Cynthia:

Dr. Cynthia Dowd is a Professor of Chemistry at George Washington University (GWU), USA. She obtained a BA in Chemistry from the University of Virginia and a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from Virginia Commonwealth University (with Dr. Richard Glennon). Following a postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania (with Dr. Irwin Chaiken), Cindy was an intramural scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). There, she led a small molecule chemistry group to discover novel agents against tuberculosis. In 2007, she began her independent career at GWU where her research is focused on the design and synthesis of novel anti-infective therapies directed primarily against tuberculosis, malaria and the ESKAPE pathogens. She is the co-author of many peer-reviewed papers, patents, reviews, and book chapters. She is the recipient of the GWU Bender teaching and DREAM mentorship awards, as well as several large research awards from outside institutions. Find out more about Cindy’s work and research group on her webpage.

Submit your research to Cynthia now!

Cynthia joins our other RSC Medicinal Chemistry Associate Editors, Jian Zhang, Maria Duca and Sally-Ann Poulsen – find out about the full Editorial Board on our webpage.

Check out Cindy’s previous publication in MedChemComm below:

Design of potential bisubstrate inhibitors against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate reductoisomerase (Dxr)—evidence of a novel binding mode

Géraldine San Jose, Emily R. Jackson, Eugene Uh, Chinchu Johny, Amanda Haymond, Lindsay Lundberg, Chelsea Pinkham, Kylene Kehn-Hall, Helena I. Boshoff, Robin D. Couch and Cynthia S. Dowd

Med. Chem. Commun., 2013, 4, 1099-1104

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Coming Soon: RSC Medicinal Chemistry themed issue on Covalent Drug Design

07 Jan 2021

We are delighted to announce our newest themed issue on Covalent Drug Design, which is Guest Edited by Dr. Lyn Jones (Dana-Faber Cancer Institute), Prof. Keriann Backus (UCLA), and Prof. Zhengying Pan (Peking University).

This issue on covalent drug design will include areas such as covalent fragment-based drug discovery, reversible covalent warhead design, structure-based drug design and covalent docking and covalent chemical probes, natural products and degraders. For more information about the scope of this issue, or if you would like to contribute an article to this collection, please contact the Editorial Office at medchem-rsc@rsc.org.

Submissions are open from now until 3 June 2021

New research in RSC Medicinal Chemistry is published as Research Articles. This article type encompasses both Communication and Full Paper styles with no strict page limit.

All manuscripts will be subject to the journal’s usual peer review process. Accepted manuscripts will be highlighted together in a dedicated virtual issue alongside an editorial by our guest editors, regardless of submission date, and there will be no delay in the publication of all accepted manuscripts into regular issues of RSC Medicinal Chemistry.

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Register now for upcoming RSC Medicinal Chemistry Desktop Seminars

15 Sep 2020

We’re excited to announce three upcoming RSC Medicinal Chemistry Desktop Seminars, featuring winners of the 2019 and 2020 RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship.

RSC Desktop Seminars are an initiative from the Royal Society of Chemistry to bring cutting-edge research directly to you! Now, more than ever, there is a crucial need for sharing research, and we’re pleased to present alongside Editorial Board members and Associate Editors, two RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureships in a digital format for the first time ever.

These seminars will cover a wide range of medicinal chemistry topics, from targeting infectious diseases to techniques for candidate identification and the chemistry of drug design. Be sure to register for each seminar individually at the links below!

30th September:

Dr. Chandradhish Ghosh

Professor Sylvie Garneau-Tsodikova

Dr. Chandradhish Ghosh, 2020 RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship recipient, (Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces)
“Fantastic bugs and how to kill them”

Professor Sylvie Garneau-Tsodikova, RSC Medicinal Chemistry Associate Editor, (University of Kentucky)
“Infectious disease research/publishing in time of a pandemic”

Introductions will be given by RSC Medicinal Chemistry Executive Editor, Dr. Katie Lim, and the webinar will be hosted by Dr. Jennifer Lee.

See more information about the speakers and register here!

7th October:

Professor Amanda Hargrove

Professor Jean-Louis Reymond

Professor Amanda Hargrove, 2019 MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship recipient and ChemComm Advisory Board member, (Duke University)
“Modulating the conformation and function of disease-relevant RNA with small molecules”

Professor Jean-Louis Reymond, RSC Medicinal Chemistry Editorial Board member, (University of Bern)
“GDB and the chemical space: enumeration, visualization, synthesis”

Introductions will be given by RSC Medicinal Chemistry Executive Editor, Dr. Katie Lim, and the webinar will be hosted by Dr. Jennifer Lee.

Registration is open now.

14^th October:

Dr. Yoshinori Ikeura

Professor Sally-Ann Poulsen

Professor Sally-Ann Poulsen, RSC Medicinal Chemistry Associate Editor, (Griffith University)
“The elephant in the room – Fragment screening using mass spectrometry”

Dr. Yoshinori Ikeura, RSC Medicinal Chemistry Editorial Board member, (Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners)
“The chemist’s contribution to the modern era in drug discovery”

Introductions will be given by RSC Medicinal Chemistry Executive Editor, Dr. Katie Lim, and the webinar will be hosted by Dr. Hiromitsu Urakami.

Registration is now open, and you can sign up here!

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Outstanding Reviewers for MedChemComm in 2018

14 Mar 2019

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for MedChemComm in 2018, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

We would like to say a big thank you to those individuals listed here as well as to all of the reviewers that have supported the journal. Each Outstanding Reviewer will receive a certificate to give recognition for their significant contribution.

Dr Thomas Alanine, Sygnature Discovery (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3349-0726)
Professor Kelly Chibale, University of Cape Town (http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0731-5286)
Dr Vijay Chudasama, University College London (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8876-3285)
Dr Brenda Farrell, Baylor College of Medicine (http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0847-6401)
Dr Micha Fridman, Tel Aviv University
Dr Keith Green, University of Kentucky
Dr Jared Hammill, University of Kentucky
Dr Katarzyna Kononowicz, Uniwersytet Jagiellonski w Krakowie Collegium Medicum (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6752-7443)
Dr Alex Poot, Amsterdam University Medical Center (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7466-4171)
Dr Brad Sleebs, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9117-1048)

We would also like to thank the MedChemComm board and the medicinal chemistry community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal, just email us at medchemcomm@rsc.org with details of your research interests and an up-to-date CV or résumé. You can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre

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Outstanding Reviewers for MedChemComm in 2017

20 Mar 2018

Outstanding Reviewers for MedChemComm in 2017

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for MedChemComm in 2017, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

Dr Andreas Brunschweiger, TU Dortmund, Germany, ORCID: 0000-0002-4401-1495
Dr David Colby, University of Mississippi, USA, ORCID: 0000-0002-5434-1690
Professor Paul Furtmüller, BOKU-University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Austria, ORCID: 0000-0002-1199-2469
Dr Keith Green, University of Kentucky, USA
Dr Ke Jiang, Stanford University, USA
Dr Mukulesh Mondal, Oakland University, USA
Dr Concepcion Sanchez-Martinez, Lilly, Spain, ORCID: 0000-0003-0221-497X
Professor Mike Waring, Newcastle University, UK, ORCID: 0000-0002-9110-8783
Dr Zhiqiang Yu, Southern Medical University, China
Dr Ye Zhang, Guangxi Normal University, China, ORCID: 0000-0002-6903-5602

We would also like to thank the MedChemComm board and the wider community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal you can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre

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Outstanding Reviewers for MedChemComm in 2016

24 Feb 2017

Following the success of Peer Review Week in September 2016 (dedicated to reviewer recognition) during which we published a list of our top reviewers, we will continue to recognise the contribution that our reviewers make to the journal by announcing our Outstanding Reviewers each year.

Outstanding Reviewers for MedChemComm in 2016, as selected by the editorial team, have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

A big thank you to those individuals listed here as well as to all of the reviewers that have supported the journal. Each Outstanding Reviewer will receive a certificate to give recognition for their significant contribution.

Dr Simone Carradori, University of Chieti-Pescara

Professor David A. Colby, University of Mississippi

Dr Abasaheb Dhawane, Georgia State University

Dr Zhang Jiancun, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Professor Zhengqui Li, Jinan University

Dr Xiaoyun Lu, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Dr Enas Malik, University of Bonn

Dr Sandeep Sundriyal, Imperial College London

Dr Kazuya Tatani, Kissei Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd.

Dr Xu Yong, Chinese Academy of Sciences

We would also like to thank the MedChemComm boards and the medicinal chemistry community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal, just email us with details of your research interests and an up-to-date CV or résumé. You can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre

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Top 10 reviewers for MedChemComm

21 Sep 2016

In celebration of Peer Review Week, with the theme around Recognition for Review – we would like to highlight the top 10 reviewers for MedChemComm in 2016, as selected by the editor for their significant contribution to the journal.

Name	Institution
Dr Sandeep Sundriyal	Imperial College London
Dr Abasaheb Dhawane	Georgia State University
Dr Xiaoyun Lu	Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health
Dr Kazuya Tatani	Kissei Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Dr Zhenqqiu Li	Jinan University
Dr Enas Malik	Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms Universitat Bonn
Dr Yong Xu	Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health, CAS
Dr Mingxuan Wu	John Hopkins School of Medicine
Dr Yves Janin	Institut Pasteur
Dr Oleg Tsodikov	University of Kentucky

We would like to say a massive thank you to these reviewers as well as the MedChemComm Editorial and Advisory Boards and all of the Medicinal Chemistry community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

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Updated guidelines and standards for MedChemComm

14 Jan 2016

We’re about to publish our first new issue of 2016 and with it come some changes to the journal which we hope will enhance MedChemComm for our readers, authors and reviewers.

More detailed scope and significance guidelines
We’ve updated our scope and significance guidelines to provide more detail about the type of research we publish, to help authors decide if MedChemComm is the right journal for their article. Also we now ask authors to provide a very brief statement on submission of their article which describes why their research is a significant advance in their field. This information assists our editors and referees in assessing the article’s suitability for publication in the journal.

Introducing ‘Research Articles’
Primary research articles in MedChemComm, which were previously called ‘Concise Articles’, are now ‘Research Articles’. There’s no change in the length or style of articles; ‘Research Articles’ can accommodate any type of primary research article, including communication and full paper styles. The change in name is purely to better reflect this breadth of style. You’ll start seeing the new article name from issue 2 this year.

Article layout
One of the most important aspects of an article from a reader’s point of view is that it’s easy to find and read, with the key information readily available. Therefore we’ve updated guidelines on writing titles and abstracts, which gives advice on how to make these as impactful as possible. This is something we’ll now ask referees to comment on when assessing a manuscript. Also we’ll be limiting the amount of experimental detail included in the main text to two journal pages. Authors should still provide as much experimental information and data as is required for their research; however anything over the two pages should be included in the supplementary information rather than the main text.

Experimental information and data
It’s important that the research published in MedChemComm has the highest levels of integrity and reproducibility; therefore we’ve updated our guidelines on experimental information and data. These give authors information on how much experimental detail should be included, what data are required and the format in which they should be presented.

Feel free to send us any comments or suggestions about these changes or anything else to do with the journal. Thank you to all our authors, reviewers and readers for your continued support, and I hope you enjoy reading MedChemComm in 2016.

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