Tools and Strategies to Find Chemical Probes for Your Protein – The Role of Computer-Aided Drug Discovery

You are invited to attend a joint Biochemical Society/Royal Society of Chemistry Workshop entitled Tools and Strategies to Find Chemical Probes for Your Protein – The Role of Computer-Aided Drug Discovery.

15 November 2013
Charles Darwin House, London, WC1N 2JU, UK

Application and Abstract deadline: 16 September 2013

This workshop aims to bring together biological scientists and computational chemists to discuss research challenges and facilitate collaborations. The workshop will be of particular interest to biological scientists who require new chemical reagents to help them to better understand biological mechanisms and to computational chemists who wish to apply computational ligand discovery methods to a biological problem. Please feel free to pass this message onto colleagues at your institution who may have interest in attending the workshop. The programme will feature oral presentations, flash poster presentations and discussion sessions. There will also be plenty of networking opportunities dispersed throughout the day.

Speakers and Facilitators:

  • Pedro Ballister, European Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridge, UK
  • Chas Bountra, University of Oxford, UK 
  • Ruth Brenk, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany
  • David Brown, University of Kent, UK  
  • Grant Churchill, University of Oxford, UK
  • John Irwin, University of California, USA
  • Paul Hawkins OpenEye Scientific Software, UK
  • Taufiq Rahman, University of Cambridge, UK
  • Dahlia Weiss, Heptares Therapeutics UK 

Organising Committee

  • Grant Churchill, University of Oxford, UK
  • Taufiq Rahman, University of Cambridge, UK
  • John Irwin, University of California, USA
  • David Brown, University of Kent, UK

Attendance is by application only and will be FREE of charge for Biochemical Society and Royal Society of Chemistry members. Delegates are encouraged to submit poster abstracts for flash and poster presentation. This workshop is the fourth of a series entitled “Analytical Tools for the Life Sciences”, a collaborative project between the Biochemical Society and Royal Society of Chemistry.

For more information please visit the event webpage.

Don’t miss out! Application and Abstract deadline is the 16 September 2013.

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MedChemComm call for papers: Carbohydrate themed issue

MedChemComm themed issue: Carbohydrates

Guest Editors: Sylvie Garneau-Tsodikova (University of Kentucky, USA) and Timor Baasov (Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel)

Submission Deadline: 28th February 2014

Submissions are now open for a high-profile themed issue on Carbohydrates, due for publication in MedChemComm in summer 2014. The scope of the issue covers all areas of carbohydrate chemistry and biology which are relevant to drug discovery.

New research in MedChemComm is published as Concise Articles: flexible articles that have no strict page limits or formatting requirements. Manuscripts can be submitted in any reasonable format using our submission system. Template is not required. Please indicate that it is for the Carbohydrates themed issue in the comments to the editor field. The level of quality of this issue will be high, and all manuscripts will undergo the journal’s normal peer review process.

The deadline for submissions to the themed issue is 28th February 2014, although submissions before this date are of course welcomed.

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Q2 top 10 for MedChemComm

Please take a look at the top 10 most accessed MedChemComm articles for the second quarter of 2013:

Metabolism-guided drug design
Antonia F. Stepan, Vincent Mascitti, Kevin Beaumont and Amit S. Kalgutkar
Med. Chem. Commun., 2013, 4, 631-652
DOI: 10.1039/C2MD20317K

Synthesis and antiproliferative activity of some 3-(pyrid-2-yl)-pyrazolines
Alexander Ciupa, Paul A. De Bank, Mary F. Mahon, Pauline J. Wood and Lorenzo Caggiano
Med. Chem. Commun., 2013, 4, 956-961
DOI: 10.1039/C3MD00077J

Minisci reactions: Versatile CH-functionalizations for medicinal chemists
Matthew A. J. Duncton
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011, 2, 1135-1161
DOI: 10.1039/C1MD00134E

A critical assessment of modeling safety-related drug attrition
Daniel Muthas, Scott Boyer and Catrin Hasselgren
Med. Chem. Commun., 2013, 4, 1058-1065
DOI: 10.1039/C3MD00072A

Increasing small molecule drug developability in sub-optimal chemical space
Timothy J. Ritchie, Simon J. F. Macdonald, Simon Peace, Stephen D. Pickett and Christopher N. Luscombe
Med. Chem. Commun., 2013, 4, 673-680
DOI: 10.1039/C3MD00003F

Recent applications of multicomponent reactions in medicinal chemistry
Paul Slobbe, Eelco Ruijter and Romano V. A. Orru
Med. Chem. Commun., 2012, 3, 1189-1218
DOI: 10.1039/C2MD20089A

On the origins of drug polypharmacology
Xavier Jalencas and Jordi Mestres
Med. Chem. Commun., 2013, 4, 80-87
DOI: 10.1039/C2MD20242E

Boronic acids in medicinal chemistry: anticancer, antibacterial and antiviral applications
Paul C. Trippier and Christopher McGuigan
Med. Chem. Commun., 2010, 1, 183-198
DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00119H

Silver nanoparticles—the real “silver bullet” in clinical medicine?
Kenneth K. Y. Wong and Xuelai Liu
Med. Chem. Commun., 2010, 1, 125-131
DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00069H

The use of phosphate bioisosteres in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology
Thomas S. Elliott, Aine Slowey, Yulin Ye and Stuart J. Conway
Med. Chem. Commun., 2012, 3, 735-751
DOI: 10.1039/C2MD20079A

We very much welcome your thoughts and comments below:

Interested in submitting your own work to MedChemComm? Submit online today, or email us with your suggestions!

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MedChemComm papers in 2013 Cancer Nanotechnology collection

We are pleased to present a web collection of articles from publications across the RSC journal portfolio demonstrating the use of (nano)technology in the diagnosis, imaging and treatment of cancer.

Here are some Med Chem Comm articles in this special cancer nanotechnology collection:

Towards biocompatible nanovalves based on mesoporous silica nanoparticles
Ying-Wei Yang
Med. Chem. Commun., 2011,2, 1033-1049
DOI: 10.1039/C1MD00158B

Silver nanoparticles—the real “silver bullet” in clinical medicine?
Kenneth K. Y. Wong and Xuelai Liu
Med. Chem. Commun., 2010,1, 125-131
DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00069H

Engineering of peglayted camptothecin into core–shell nanomicelles for improving solubility, stability and combination delivery
Haiqing Dong, Chunyan Dong, Yue Feng, Tianbin Ren, Zhonghai Zhang, Lan Li and Yongyong Li  
Med. Chem. Commun., 2012,3, 1555-1561
DOI: 10.1039/C2MD20153D

Hard shell gas-filled contrast enhancement particles for colour Doppler ultrasound imaging of tumors
H. Paul Martinez, Yuko Kono, Sarah L. Blair, Sergio Sandoval, Jessica Wang-Rodriguez, Robert F. Mattrey, Andrew C. Kummel and William C. Trogler
Med. Chem. Commun., 2010,1, 266-270
DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00139B

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Poster Session at the 2013 Medicinal Chemistry Residential School

Sunday night saw the inaugural poster session at the 2013 RSC Medicinal Chemistry Summer School. In total 16 delegates presentPoster Session at the 2013 Medicinal Chemistry Residential Schooled their work on the evening. A broad spectrum of chemistry was discussed over a glass of wine and posters provided a great way to see the research interests of delegates. There were 2 poster prizes up for grabs – a 1 year subscription to MedChemComm  and a book from the RSC Books Drug Discovery Series.
On Monday morning, Andy Davis announced the winners; there was a tie for the MedChemComm sponsored Prize which was shared between:

  • Louis Allot ( University of Hull) for his work on PET imaging of nuclear receptor expression.
  • Kate Nicholson (University of Hull) for her work on synthesis and evaluation of novel coordination complexes as CXCR4 antagonists.

 Poster Session at 2013 Medicinal Chemistry Residential School

Delegates also had an opportunity to vote for their favourite poster, the winner of the “participants prize” went to Madura Jayatunga (University of Oxford) for his work on non-covalent and covalent inhibitors of the HIF1a-p300 interaction. Madura received the RSC Book PrizeNew Therapeutic Strategies for Type 2 Diabetes.

Thanks to our 2 judges Andy Davis and Roger Griffin; and of course everyone that took part!

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Chemistry skills for drug discovery

Read a Royal Society of Chemistry position paper.

Chemistry expertise is critical to technical success across the spectrum of innovative medicines R&D. This position paper describes the changes that have taken place in the drug discovery sector and the challenges this presents in terms of ensuring chemistry, as the key enabling science, continues to deliver the essential translation of biological opportunity into clinical application.

It includes:

  • Impact of recent developments on training capacity and mobility
  • Key skills and capabilities for drug discovery chemists 

RSC-science-Drug discovery position paper

Read the full position paper by David Fox at RSC Science

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Take 1.. minute for chemistry in health

Take 1.. minute for chemistry in health

Do you know how chemical scientists can tackle global challenges in Human Health? If so, the RSC is running a one minute video competition this summer for young researchers such as PhD and Post-doc students; get involved and innovate the way scientists share their research. Your video should communicate your own personal research or an area of research that interests you, highlighting its significance and impact to Human Health.

Five videos will be shortlisted by our judging panel and the winner will be selected during the ‘How does chemistry keep us healthy?’ themed National Chemistry Week taking place 16-23 November.

A £500 prize and a fantastic opportunity to shadow the award winning video Journalist, Brady Harran, is up for grabs for the winner.

The judging panel will include the makers of The Periodic Tale of Videos, Martyn Poliakoff and Brady Harran, and RSC Division representatives.

Check out our webpage for further details of the competition and an example video.

The competition opened on 02 April 2013 and the closing date for entries is 01 July 2013. Please submit yours to rsc.li/take-1-video-competition.

The winner will be chosen and announced during National Chemistry week, 11-16 November 2013

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Editors’ Choice: Structure-guided design of a selective BCL-XL inhibitor

This article describes the structure-guided optimisation of a screening hit against the pro-survival protein BCL-XL, which is often overexpressed in solid tumors and results in malignant tumor cells showing resistance to anticancer treatments.

Structure-guided design of a selective BCL-XL inhibitor
Guillaume Lessene, Peter E Czabotar, Brad E Sleebs, Kerry Zobel, Kym N Lowes, Jerry M Adams, Jonathan B Baell, Peter M Colman, Kurt Deshayes, Wayne J Fairbrother, John A Flygare, Paul Gibbons, Wilhelmus J A Kersten, Sanji Kulasegaram, Rebecca M Moss, John P Parisot, Brian J Smith, Ian P Street, Hong Yang, David C S Huang and Keith G Watson
Nature Chemical Biology, 9, 390–397, (2013)

Editors’ Choice articles are articles identified as being of high potential interest to medicinal chemists, selected from the wider literature by members of the Editorial Board.

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HOT: A critical assessment of modeling safety-related drug attrition

This paper is HOT as recommended by the referees, and is free to access for 4 weeks

In this HOT perspective, Hasselgreen and co-workers at AstraZeneca R&D Mölndal, reflect on the tough crisis that has afflicted the pharmaceutical industry in recent years, where the increased R&D budgets have not translated into new valuable products. This review offers an excellent overview of aspects and practicalities involved in preclinical toxicity prediction and analysis. The authors inspect commonly used guidelines/rules in medicinal chemistry aimed at reducing toxicity wondering if a simple distinction between compounds that have safety liabilities and “clean” compounds really exists. And crucially, they reflect on the impact of applying such guidelines on compounds progressing to clinical phases or even further and becoming approved drugs.

A critical assessment of modeling safety-related drug attrition

A critical assessment of modeling safety-related drug attrition
Daniel Muthas, Scott Boyer and Catrin Hasselgren
DOI: 10.1039/C3MD00072A

Free to access for 4 weeks

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Call for papers: Chemical Biology for Target Identification and Validation

MedChemComm themed issue: Chemical Biology for Target Identification and Validation

Guest Editors: Nathanael Gray (Harvard University, USA) and Lyn Jones (Pfizer, Cambridge, USA)

Submission Deadline: 30th September 2013

Submissions are now open for a high-profile themed issue on Chemical Biology for Target Identification and Validation, due for publication in MedChemComm in early 2014. It will receive great exposure and significant promotion.

Scope
Part of MedChemComm’s mission is to publish high level chemistry biology research which enables drug discovery. This special issue will be broad in scope, covering advances in the discovery, development and application of chemical biology to elucidate and validate new therapeutic targets. Relevant topics include (but are not limited to):

  • the use of –omics and imaging technologies
  • immunoprecipitation and affinity chromatography to identify novel targets and therapeutic modalities
  • the creation and development of new techniques to assess target (and off-target) engagement
  • advances in areas such as chemogenomics, microarrays, yeast three hybrid, RNAi and chem/bioinformatics

New research in MedChemComm is published as Concise Articles. This article type encompasses both Communication and Full Paper styles and is generally between 3 and 7 pages in length, but there is no strict page limit.

Manuscripts can be submitted in any reasonable format using our submission system. Template is not required. Please indicate that it is for the Chemical Biology themed issue in the comments to the editor field. The level of quality of this issue will be high, and all manuscripts will undergo the journal’s normal peer review process.

The deadline for submissions to the themed issue is 30th September 2013, although submissions before this date are of course welcomed.

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