10th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry

Luc (Lucas) Brunsveld (1975) received his PhD degree in 2001 under supervision of prof. Bert Meijer at the Eindhoven University of Technology. Topic of the thesis was the self-assembly of designed molecules into helical architectures in water. Subsequently, he moved as a Humboldt fellow to the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiologie, Dortmund, to work on the protein semi-synthesis and evaluation of lipidated Ras GTPases in the group of prof. Herbert Waldmann. From 2003-2004 he worked as a group leader in the medicinal chemistry department of Organon (now Schering-Plough) in Oss, on nuclear receptor medicinal chemistry.

End of 2004 Luc Brunsveld received the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, with which he established his own research group at the MPI of Molecular Physiologie, Dortmund, beginning 2005, working on the combination of supramolecular chemistry with protein biochemistry and cellular biology, generating new approaches to modulate biological processes. In 2006 he in addition became group leader at the Chemical Genomics Centre of the Max Planck Society, Dortmund, working on the chemical biology of nuclear receptors to understand and modulate the nuclear receptor-cofactor interaction, in close collaboration with Bayer-Schering Pharma, Merck-Serono, and Schering-Plough.

In the middle of 2008 Luc Brunsveld received an ERC starting grant and became full professor in chemical biology in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology.

In his research Luc Brunsveld uses chemical biology approaches to study protein-protein interactions. Two general themes are followed: 1) Supramolecular Architectures are being pursued as instruments to modulate protein-protein interactions and 2) the Nuclear Receptor – Cofactor interaction is being investigated as a specific protein-protein interaction with many unsolved questions, possibly amendable via chemical biology.

Stuart Conway is a University Lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Oxford and the Fellow in Organic Chemistry at St Hugh’s College, Oxford. He studied Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Warwick before undertaking PhD studies with Prof. David Jane in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Bristol. Stuart completed post-doctoral studies with Prof. Andrew Holmes FRS at the University of Cambridge. In 2003, he was appointed as a Lecturer in Bioorganic Chemistry at the University of St Andrews and in 2008 he took up his current position. Between March and August 2013 Stuart was a Visiting Associate at the California Institute of Technology. Stuart’s research focuses on the development of molecular tools to enable the study of biological systems. The group’s work was recognised by the award of the 2012 Prize for a Young Medicinal Chemist in Academia by the European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry.

Fabrizio Giordanetto graduated with first class honors in Medicinal Chemistry in 2000 from University of Genoa, Italy. He completed his Ph.D. in Computational Medicinal Chemistry in 2003 at University of London, UK while working for the chemistry unit of Pharmacia (Pfizer) in Nerviano, Italy. In 2004 he joined the Medicinal Chemistry Department of AstraZeneca in Mölndal (Sweden) where he grew professionally to the position of Principal Scientist in Medicinal Chemistry and Preclinical Project Leader. Since 2013, he is Head of Medicinal Chemistry for Taros Gmbh, a research-based SME in Dortmund, Germany, where he leads medicinal chemistry activities and discovery projects. During his career, he worked on several drug discovery programs resulting in multiple clinical candidates spanning oncology, CNS and cardiovascular indications and >80 peer–reviewed publications, book chapters, and international patents.

Anna Mapp completed her A.B. in chemistry at Bryn Mawr College before moving to the University of California-Berkeley to complete the PhD under the direction of Professor Clayton H. Heathcock in synthetic organic chemistry. Following postdoctoral work with Professor Peter B Dervan at Caltech, Mapp joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in 2000, where she is currently Edwin Vedejs Collegiate Professor of Chemistry, Research Professor of the Life Sciences Institute and Director of the Program in Chemical Biology. Her laboratory focuses on the development and implementation of chemical genetic methods to regulate protein-protein interactions at gene promoters.

Group Leader of the Laboratory of integrative Structural & Chemical Biology (iSCB, http://iscb.cnrs-mrs.fr)
Director of the Molecular Modeling Platform INT-3D (http://int3d.cnrs-mrs.fr)
National Secretary of the French Society of Chemoinformatics (SFCi)
Member of the National Scientific Committee of the ARC (Association for the Research against Cancer)
Associate Editor of BMC ‘Pharmacology & Toxicology’
47 Research Articles. 1 book chapter. 2 international patents.
47 invited Conferences since 2006 (24 international conferences/seminar)
Advisor of 6 PhD students since 2006
Consulting for pharmaceutical companies since 2009
Expert for several national agencies (Ireland, Netherland, Singapore, France)
Awarded >10 national & international grants since 2010

Current title and position: Associate Professor, Molecular and Structural Cell Biology, Eindhoven University of Technology
Research Field: Small-molecule modulation of 14-3-3 Protein-Protein Interactions
Education and former professional experience:
07/2006 – 08.2012: Chemical Genomics Centre of the Max Planck Society, Dortmund, Germany, Group Leader
01/2005-06/2006: University of Dortmund and Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, Dortmund, Germany, Postdoc, Structural Biology
06/2005-12/2009: Founder and CSO of AmbAgon Technology GbR, Dortmund
02/2003-12/2004: Center of Molecular Plant Biology, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany, Postdoc, Plant Physiology
01/2000-01/2003: Center of Molecular Plant Biology, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany Ph.D. student, Plant Physiology

Dr Alexander Wolf is Scientist Assay Development & Screening at the Lead Discovery Center. Work description:
Designing, developing and implementing robust assays applicable in fully automated high throughput screening campaigns for small molecule libraries.
Managing HTS resource allocation in screening campaigns. Education: Biochemist by training (Ruhr-University Bochum) PhD: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology Post-Doc and team leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology