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Keynote Speakers
Expanding the Druggable Genome through Cereblon-Mediated Protein Degradation (KL02)
 | Dr Lawrence G. HAMANN
(BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB, San Francisco, United States)
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Larry Hamann is currently Corporate Vice President and Global Head of Chemistry at Celgene, with responsibility for Medicinal and Computational Chemistry, Biochemistry, Structural and Chemical Biology and Screening. In > 27 years in drug discovery he has led teams responsible for more than 17 clinical stage compounds, including the FDA approved DPP4 inhibitor saxagliptin (Onglyza™) for type 2 diabetes, and first-in-class HCV NS5A inhibitor daclatasvir (Daklinza™) for hepatitis C. Prior to Celgene, Larry was Executive Director, Global Discovery Chemistry at Novartis, overseeing programs in oncology, neuroscience, respiratory, cardiovascular, and rare genetic disease. Previously, Larry was at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Ligand Pharmaceuticals. Larry holds a BS in Chemistry from the University of Detroit and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Michigan. Close window |
Necessity is the Mother of Invention: Natural Products and the Chemistry They Inspire (KL01)
 | Prof. Sarah E. REISMAN
(CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, Pasadena, United States) |
Controlling the Fate and Function of Proteins with Photopharmacology (KL03)
 | Prof. Dirk TRAUNER
(NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, New York, United States)
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Dirk Trauner was born and raised in Linz, Austria, studied biology and chemistry at the University of Vienna, and received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the Free University, Berlin. He then pursued graduate studies in chemistry under the direction of Prof. Johann Mulzer, with whom he moved to the University of Frankfurt and then back to Vienna where he obtained his Ph.D. Following a stint in the Austrian Army, he became a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Samuel J. Danishefsky at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. After two great years in New York City, Dr. Trauner joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, where he rose through the ranks to become an Associate Professor of chemistry (with tenure) and a member of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 2008, he moved to the University of Munich as a Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Genetics. In the Spring of 2017 he returned to the United States as the Janice Cutler Chair in Chemistry at New York University (Department of Chemistry). He also holds and appointment at the NYU Langone School of Medicine and is a member of the NYU Neuroscience Institute and of the Perlmutter Cancer Center. Close window |
Accelerating Drug Discovery by Intelligence Augmentation
Exploring an Interface of Synthesis and Data Science (PL18)
 | Prof. Timothy CERNAK
(UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, Ann Arbor, United States)
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Tim Cernak was born in Montreal, Canada in 1980. He obtained a B.Sc. in Chemistry from University of British Columbia Okanagan and there studied the aroma profile of Chardonnay wines. Following PhD training in total synthesis with Prof. Jim Gleason at McGill University, Tim was a FQRNT Postdoctoral Fellow with Tristan Lambert at Columbia University. In 2009, Tim joined the Medicinal Chemistry team at Merck Sharp & Dohme in Rahway, New Jersey. There he developed technologies for miniaturized synthesis and late-stage functionalization. In 2013, Tim moved to Merck’s Boston site. In 2018, Dr. Cernak transitioned from industry to academia and launched a lab at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor as an Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry. The Cernak Lab is exploring an interface of chemical synthesis and data science. Close window |
Organic Synthesis on a Computer: Should Medicinal Chemists Care? (PL17)
 | Prof. Bartosz A. GRZYBOWSKI
(ULSAN NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, Ulsan, Korea, South)
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Bartosz A. Grzybowski graduated summa cum laude from Yale University in 1995 and received his Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard in 2000. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard, he joined the faculty of Northwestern University in 2003 and in 2009 became Kenneth Burgess Professor of Physical Chemistry and Chemical Systems’ Engineering. From 2009 he directed the DoE Non-Equilibrium Research Center at Northwestern. In late 2014 he moved to UNIST where he is now a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and also a Group Leader at the IBS Center for Soft and Living Matter. He is also Professor at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences. His current research interests include chemical networks and systems, automated synthetic planning, theory of organic synthesis, applications of AI to chemistry, autocatalysis, and “thinking” materials. Close window |
Accelerating R&D with Augmented Intelligence (PL19)
 | Dr Matthias ZENTGRAF
(BOEHRINGER INGELHEIM, Biberach an der Riss, Germany)
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Matthias did his PhD with Prof. Klebe and joined the Computational Chemistry group of Boehringer Ingelheim in Biberach in 2006. In 2010 he became team lead of one of the Computational Chemistry teams with a focus on respiratory diseases. Since 2017 he is “Head of Computational Chemistry“. Close window |
Drug Discovery Tales
The Big Impact of Small Changes : Towards Best-in-Class EZH2 and LSD1 Inhibitors (OC08)
 | Dr Julian LEVELL
(CONSTELLATION PHARMACEUTICALS, Cambridge, United States)
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Dr Julian Levell is VP of Drug Discovery at Constellation Pharmaceuticals in Boston USA, with responsibility for small molecule research efforts in medicinal chemistry, molecular modelling, structural biology, protein production, DMPK, automation, compound management, biochemistry and biophysics. Julian carried out his PhD research at Cardiff University on organic photochromic molecules, which included co-invention of a series of compounds which were incorporated into Transitions™ lenses. He went on to do postdoctoral research at the University of Florida with Prof Alan Katritzky on the development of novel heterocyclic chemistry methodology. Since then, Julian has worked in biotech and pharma research for over 20 years, spending time in California at Centaur Pharmaceuticals, Pennsylvania and New Jersey at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer / Aventis / Sanofi, and in Boston at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research. During his career, Julian has led teams and projects across multiple disease areas including cardiovascular, diabetes, asthma, neuroscience, and oncology; with 9 programs transitioning through IND. He has also spent time in South Africa to help build drug discovery capabilities at the H3D research center in Cape Town with Prof Kelly Chibale. Julian has over 40 patents and publications, is a member of American Chemical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and is a core member of the NIH National Cancer Institutes (NCI) Experimental Therapeutics (NExT) review committee and Special Emphasis Panel (SEP). Close window |
Discovery of AZD3458 a Highly Selective PI3Ky Inhibitor: Combining Structure, HDX-MS and Binding Kinetics to Understand the Mode of Action (OC06)
 | Dr Nils PEMBERTON
(ASTRAZENECA, Mölndal, Sweden)
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Nils Pemberton is Associate Principal Scientist in medicinal chemistry in the Biopharmaceutical unit of AstraZeneca R&D in Gothenburg Sweden. Nils carried out his Ph D research at Umeå University working with method development in heterocyclic chemistry and design of small molecules targeting virulence factors. This was followed by a postdoctoral position at Gothenburg University working with design and synthesis of chromone based peptidomimetics. He joined AstraZeneca in 2009 and has more than ten years’ experience of optimizing drugs against a wide range of respiratory and inflammation targets, with particular interest in the field of kinase inhibitor research and lead generation strategies. Close window |
The Discovery of a Potent and Orally Bioavailable Macrocyclic Cyclophilin Inhibitor Based on The Structural Simplification of Sanglifehrin A (OC07)
 | Dr Vicky STEADMAN
(EUROFINS DISCOVERY, Essex, United Kingdom)
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Vicky carried out a PhD and post-doc in total synthesis of macrocyclic natural products at Cambridge University with Prof Ian Paterson and at U Penn with Prof Amos B. Smith, III. Her industrial career initiated at Merck (Terling’s Park) working on neuroscience targets. She then moved to GlaxoSmithKline (Harlow) focussing on anti-infectives and anti-inflammatories. Upon joining Selcia in 2008, she rose from Senior Scientist to Director of Discovery. Upon Selcia’s acquisition by Eurofins in 2017, she became General Manager of Eurofins Integrated Discovery, part of Eurofins Discovery. Vicky has a strong track record in innovative medicinal chemistry, and has delivered multiple pre-clinical candidates for customers. She is named on around 30 papers and patents and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Close window |
Investigating the Chameleonic Properties of RGD Integrin Antagonists for the Treatment of IPF (OC05)
 | Dr James THOMPSON
(GLAXOSMITHKLINE/UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE, Stevenage, United Kingdom)
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He did his undergraduate studies at the University of Cambridge, studying Natural Sciences and graduating in 2016. During his final year, he worked on the total synthesis of a marine natural product under the supervision of Ian Paterson. He then commenced his PhD studies as a part of the GlaxoSmithKline/University of Strathclyde collaborative PhD programme in 2016, and he is now in his final year of his PhD studies. During his PhD he has been working on αV integrin antagonists, supervised by John Pritchard at GlaxoSmithKline and Professor Billy Kerr at the University of Strathclyde. Close window |
Discovery of GDC-0334: a potent and orally bioavailable clinical candidate for the inhibition of TRPA1 (OC04)
 | Dr Vishal VERMA
(GENENTECH, South San Francisco, United States)
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Vishal Verma obtained his BA from Northwestern University in 2003 and his PhD from Stanford University in labs of Professor Paul Wender in 2008. He started his drug discovery career at Schering-Plough/Merck and contributed to multiple programs targeting HCV. In 2012, he joined Genentech and has worked on a variety of therapeutic areas including antibody-drug conjugates for oncology & infectious disease and small molecule programs targeting pain, Gram-negative infectious disease, oncology and immunology, contributing to multiple clinical candidate programs. Close window |
Frontiers of Synthetic Chemistry
A Radical Way to Abeo-Steroids (PL08)
 | Prof. Philipp HERETSCH
(FREE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN, Berlin, Germany)
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Philipp Heretsch was born in Lippstadt, Germany, in 1982. He obtained his PhD degree from Universität Leipzig (supervisor: Prof. A. Giannis) in 2009. After a postdoctoral stay with Prof. K.C. Nicolaou at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, and at Rice University, Houston, Texas, he was appointed assistant professor at Freie Universität Berlin in 2015. Philipp Heretsch has been working on total synthesis of biologically active natural products since the beginning of his career. His group is now interested in radical C−C-bond manipulation strategies in the context of the synthesis of complex abeo-steroids, guided by biosynthetic hypotheses as well as designing flow reactors for specific use in natural product synthesis. Close window |
New Avenues in Synthesis Enabled by Organic Photoredox Catalysis (PL06)
 | Prof. David NICEWICZ
(UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL, Chapel Hill, United States)
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Dave Nicewicz completed his Chemistry B.S. (2000) and M.S. (2001) degrees at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He then moved to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill where he completed his Ph.D. with Prof. Jeffrey S. Johnson in 2006. Nicewicz then was a Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow with Prof. David W. C. MacMillan. In 2009, Dave began his independent career at the UNC Chapel Hill, where his laboratory has focused on organic photoredox catalysis for the development of novel chemical reactivity. He has received awards from UNC (Ruth Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement), industry (Boehringer Ingelheim; Amgen; Eli Lilly), private foundations (Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering; Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award) and international recognition (The 13th Hirata Award, Nagoya University). In 2015, he was promoted to Associate Professor, and then Full Professor in 2018. Close window |
Late-Stage Functionalizations (PL07)
 | Prof. Tobias RITTER
(MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR KOHLENFORSCHUNG, Mulheim, Germany)
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Tobias Ritter received his undergraduate education in Braunschweig, Germany, Bordeaux, France, Lausanne, Switzerland, and Stanford, US. He has performed undergraduate research with Prof. Barry M. Trost at Stanford, obtained his PhD working with Prof. Erick M. Carreira at ETH Zurich in 2004, and was a postdoc with Prof. Robert H. Grubbs at Caltech. In 2006, Tobias was appointed as Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard, promoted to Associate Professor in 2010, and to Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology in 2012. Since 2015 he is director at the Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kohlenforschung in Germany, since 2018 as the Managing Director, and holds additional faculty appointments at RWTH Aachen and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. The Ritter lab focuses on late-stage functionalization chemistry, with a focus on fluorination methods and their application to molecular imaging. In 2011, Tobias founded SciFluor LifeScience, a clinical pharmaceutical company in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Close window |
Break-it-to-Make-it Strategies for Complex Molecule Synthesis (PL05)
 | Prof. Richmond SARPONG
(UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, Berkeley, United States)
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Richmond Sarpong is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of California Berkeley where he and his group specialize in synthetic organic chemistry. Richmond completed his undergraduate studies at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN and his graduate work was carried out with Prof. Martin Semmelhack at Princeton. He conducted postdoctoral studies at Caltech with Prof. Brian Stoltz. At Berkeley, Richmond’s laboratory focuses on the synthesis of bioactive complex organic molecules, with a particular focus on secondary metabolites that come from marine or terrestrial flora and fauna. Of all his professional accomplishments, Richmond is most proud of the students with whom he has worked. Close window |
Innovation and Inspiration from Natural Products
Capturing Biological Activity in Natural Product Fragments: Success and Limitations (PL14)
 | Prof. Karl GADEMANN
(UNIVERSITY OF ZÜRICH, Zürich, Switzerland)
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Karl Gademann (1972) was educated at ETH Zürich and Harvard University, where he worked with Prof. Dieter Seebach, Prof. Eric N. Jacobsen, and Prof. Erick M. Carreira. His previous professorial appointments include the EPFL in Lausanne and the University of Basel, where he served as full professor and dean of research. He has been elected to the board of the Swiss Academy of Sciences, and is affiliated to the NCCR Molecular Systems Engineering. In Summer 2015, Karl Gademann moved to the University of Zürich, where he serves as the chair of the department of chemistry. In addition, he also performs duties as a research councillor to the Swiss National Science Foundation. His work has been recognized by a number of international awards, including the Latsis prize, the Novartis Early Career Award, the Ruzicka Medal, The Liebig Lecture by the German Chemical Society, and the European Young Investigator Award. Close window |
(De)Construction of Three-Dimensional Molecular Architectures (PL15)
 | Prof. Thomas MAGAUER
(UNIVERSITY OF INNSBRUCK, Innsbruck, Austria) |
Synthesis of Complex Antiplasmodial Isocyanoterpenes (PL16)
 | Prof. Christopher VANDERWAL
(UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Irvine, United States)
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Chris Vanderwal was born in Germany (to Canadian parents). At the age of nearly five, young Chris moved with his parents to Ottawa, Canada, where he attended school, up to and including university (BSc in Biochemistry, MSc in Chemistry from the University of Ottawa). Chris moved to sunny San Diego, where he earned his PhD under the supervision of Erik Sorensen at Scripps in 2003. Chris then moved back to the cold as a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University in the lab of Eric Jacobsen. Chris enthusiastically joined the Chemistry Department faculty at UC Irvine in 2005. In 2011, Chris was promoted to Associate Professor of Chemistry with tenure, and was named a UCI Chancellor’s Faculty Fellow. In 2013, Chris was promoted to Professor. Close window |
Total Synthesis of Chivosazole F (OC03)
 | Dr Simon WILLIAMS
(SYNGENTA, Stein AG, Switzerland)
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Simon Williams did his undergraduate education in natural sciences at the University of Cambridge and continued to do a PhD on the synthesis of marine natural products with Prof. Ian Paterson. He spent a further year as a postdoc in the Paterson group before moving to the University of Zurich to work with Prof. Karl Gademann on antibiotic natural products. At the end of 2018 he started his current position as a team leader in research chemistry at Syngenta in Stein (Switzerland). Close window |
Predictive ADME Sciences: Striking a Balance Between In Silico and Experimental Work?
Structural Attributes Influencing Unbound Tissue Distribution (PL01)
 | Dr Li DI
(PFIZER, Groton, United States)
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Dr. Li Di has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical indus¬try including Pfizer, Wyeth and Syntex. She is currently a research fellow at Pfizer, Groton, CT. Her research interests include the areas of drug metabo¬lism, pharmacokinetics, drug-drug interactions, absorption, transporters, and blood–brain barrier. She has over 145 publications including two books and presented over 85 invited lectures. She is a recipient of the Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award, the New Jersey Association for Biomedical Research Outstanding Woman in Science Award, the Wyeth President’s Award and Peer Award for Excellence. Close window |
Metabolism of Strained Rings: Tales of the Unexpected (PL02)
 | Dr Martin HAYES
(ASTRAZENECA, Gothenburg, Sweden)
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Martin Hayes is currently Biocatalysis Leader in Hit Discovery, part of Discovery Sciences at AstraZeneca in Gothenburg, Sweden. He has over 25 years of industrial experience in drug discovery and development in large pharma and biotech with research interests in biocatalysis, biotransformation, natural products chemistry, analytical chemistry, structure elucidation and drug design. MH has held roles as a Team Leader, Design Leader and Project Leader at AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and Xenova. He led preclinical biotransformation studies on the P2Y12 blockbuster Brilinta/Brilique and DMPK design efforts for the FLAP inhibitor AZD5718 for atherosclerosis, currently in Phase 2. He is Industrial Lead for small molecule development and member of the Prosperity Partnership Management Board for the EPSRC/BBRSC PP Grant to establish a new Centre for Biocatalytic Manufacture of New Modalities (CBNM) at Manchester University (2018-2023). He was PI on the Marie Curie FP7 funded P4FIFTY project (2013-2017). He has published over 35 papers in peer-reviewed journals, holds 14 patents and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2000. Martin worked with Prof Tom Simpson FRS at the University of Bristol on mechanistic aspects of fungal polyketide chain assembly, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship with Prof Bryan Jones at University of Toronto. Close window |
Predicting ADME - Reality, Vision or Fantasy? (PL04)
 | Dr Simone SCHADT
(F. HOFFMANN-LA ROCHE, Basel, Switzerland)
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Simone Schadt, PhD, DABT, ERT, is a Senior Principal Scientist, heading the biotransformation section at Roche Innovation Center Basel (Switzerland). Simone is a biochemist by training, with a major in organic chemistry and immunology, from the University of Tübingen (Germany). She graduated in 2007 with a PhD in biochemistry and analytical chemistry (Prof. Roderich D. Süssmuth) from Technical University of Berlin (Germany) with a thesis on the mode of action of a novel antibiotic. After graduating, she started her career as a postdoctoral fellow in the field of reactive metabolites and drug induced liver injury, then became a lab head in the drug metabolism group at Boehringer Ingelheim (Biberach, Germany). In 2011, she joined the drug metabolism group at Roche, and was promoted to group head drug metabolism in 2012 and to section head biotransformation in 2018. In 2019, she took over additional responsibility for coordinating ADME activities in a Matrix role. Her current focus is on biotransformation and ADME of small molecules, oligonucleotides and therapeutic proteins. Close window |
Leveraging In Silico ADMET Profiles and Ancillary Pharmacology to Influence Prioritization of Hit Series with Higher Probability of Success (PL03)
 | Dr Falgun SHAH
(MERCK & CO., West Point, United States)
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Dr. Falgun is currently an Associate principal scientist and computational ADME & toxicology domain lead within the discovery chemistry group at Merck, West Point. His interest lies in applying machine learning and data mining approaches to identify potential ADME and safety liabilities within chemotypes. His current role involves influencing medicinal chemistry project teams to utilize in silico ADMET approaches during post-HTS work-up to enable them to bring high-quality chemical series forward.
Prior to Merck, Falgun worked in compound safety prediction group at Pfizer for 4.5 years where he deployed in silico and informatics approaches to identify new mechanisms of organ toxicities in particularly drug-induced liver injury and cardiotoxicity. He has over 25 publications in peer-reviewed journals and multiple invited presentations. Falgun is trained as a pharmacist and holds a Ph.D. in medicinal/computational chemistry. Close window |
 | Dr Kenichi UMEHARA
(ROCHE PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT, Basel, Switzerland)
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Kenichi Umehara is a Principal Scientist contributing to translation of the in vitro DDI results into models to understand the human situation Scientist at Roche Innovation Center (Basel, Switzerland). He obtained his PhD from the University of Toho (Japan), after working in Prof. Dr. Sugiyama’s laboratory. In 2002, Kenichi joined Astellas Pharma, then in 2009, moved to Novartis (Switzerland) to undertake postdoctoral research for hepatic clearance prediction. Subsequently, he was appointed laboratory head for DDI assessment supporting global project teams. Kenichi also has many experience in interactions with HA’s that include PBPK modeling, to propose dose adjustment with concomitant medications resulting in waiver of clinical studies. In 2018 Kenichi joined the in vitro PK and DDI group at Roche. Close window |
Protein Degradation: New Rules for Drug Discovery
Expanding the Druggable Genome through Cereblon-Mediated Protein Degradation (KL02)
| Dr Lawrence G. HAMANN
(BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB, San Francisco, United States)
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Larry Hamann is currently Corporate Vice President and Global Head of Chemistry at Celgene, with responsibility for Medicinal and Computational Chemistry, Biochemistry, Structural and Chemical Biology and Screening. In > 27 years in drug discovery he has led teams responsible for more than 17 clinical stage compounds, including the FDA approved DPP4 inhibitor saxagliptin (Onglyza™) for type 2 diabetes, and first-in-class HCV NS5A inhibitor daclatasvir (Daklinza™) for hepatitis C. Prior to Celgene, Larry was Executive Director, Global Discovery Chemistry at Novartis, overseeing programs in oncology, neuroscience, respiratory, cardiovascular, and rare genetic disease. Previously, Larry was at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Ligand Pharmaceuticals. Larry holds a BS in Chemistry from the University of Detroit and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Michigan. Close window |
Targeted Protein Degradation (PL12)
 | Prof. Andy PHILLIPS
(C4 THERAPEUTICS, Watertown, United States)
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Andy Phillips is President and Chief Executive Officer of C4 Therapeutics, a biotech company that is developing a new class of small molecules that direct the machinery of the ubiquitin-proteasome system to selectively degrade disease-relevant proteins for therapeutic benefit.
Before joining C4 Therapeutics, Andy was Senior Director, Center for Development of Therapeutics at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where he led overall therapeutic efforts and provided strategic leadership for a number of major partnerships. Previously, he was a Full Professor of Chemistry at Yale University, where he received the ACS Cope Scholar Award for his research accomplishments, which included the development of small molecules aimed at modulating ‘undruggable’ targets. Prior to this, he was a Full Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where his efforts in complex molecule synthesis and targeting protein-protein interactions garnered a number of awards, including an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, an Eli Lilly Grantee Award, and a National Science Foundation CAREER Award. Andy received a B.Sc. (Hons) in biochemistry and a Ph.D. in biochemistry and chemistry from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in organic chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh.
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Four E3 Ligases, One Target: Towards Novel CDK6 Protacs (OC02)
 | Dr Christian STEINEBACH
(UNIVERSITY OF BONN, Bonn, Germany)
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Christian Steinebach completed his undergraduate studies in Pharmacy (state examination) at the University of Bonn, Germany. In 2015, he became a licensed Pharmacist and got the Carl-Friedrich-Mohr award. He received his MSc in Drug Development in 2016. Since then he is performing his PhD studies in Pharmaceutical Chemistry supervised by Prof. Michael Gütschow at the Pharmaceutical Institute in Bonn. In 2018, he successfully applied for a PhD-related scholarship from the Bonn International Graduate School of Drug Sciences. His scientific work is devoted to the Medicinal Chemistry of Proteolysis Targeting Chimeras (PROTACs), to the design and synthesis of bioactive molecules acting by a new modality of targeted degradation of disease-causing proteins, in particular protein kinases. Close window |
Chemical Genomics Approaches to Targeted Protein Degradation (PL13)
 | Dr Georg WINTER
(RESEARCH CENTER FOR MOLECULAR MEDICINE OF THE AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, Vienna, Austria)
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Georg Winter, PhD, obtained his degree from the Medical University of Vienna, working on elucidating the mechanism of action of anti-neoplastic drugs under the supervision of Prof. Giulio Superti-Furga. He specialized on proteomics- as well as chemical genetics approaches to identify drug resistance mechanisms and synergistic drug combinations. He continued his training in chemical biology, working as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. James Bradner the Dana Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School. Supported by an EMBO fellowship, he developed the first generalizable pharmacologic solution to in vivo target protein degradation (Winter et al., Science 2015). He was recruited as a CeMM Principal Investigator in June 2016 where his research is now focused on using the unique molecular pharmacology of targeted protein degradation to understand and disrupt fundamental principles of transcription and gene control aberrantly regulated in human cancers. Georg Winter (co-) authored 30 manuscripts including publications in Science, Nature and Nature Chemical Biology. His interdisciplinary research lab is supported by several national and international grants including an ERC Starting grant. Dr. Winter’s contribution to the field of targeted protein degradation was acknowledged via multiple prices and awards, including the Eppendorf Award and the Elisabeth Lutz Award of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Close window |
Structure and Biophysics - Companions for Medicinal Chemistry
Membrane Proteins at the SGC – Challenges and Success Stories (PL09)
 | Dr Katharina DÜRR
(UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, Oxford, United Kingdom)
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The Duerr group at the Structural Genomics Consortium Oxford uses structural methods (X-ray crystallography and single-particle cryo-Electron microscopy) to determine the molecular architecture of human ion channels, transporters, enzymes and other integral membrane proteins relevant to various disease conditions and human therapies. This structural work provides valuable insights into the molecular interactions of these proteins with their native substrates, small molecule drugs or therapeutic antibodies and provides a framework to develop mechanistic models for their functional activity, which are then further tested in functional experiments. Prior to joining the SGC in 2016, Katharina has been a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Eric Gouaux at OHSU (Portland, OR), studying the structure and function of ionotropic glutamate receptors. Close window |
Discovery of Small Molecule Fascin 1 Inhibitors Using Fragment-Based Drug Discovery (OC01)
 | Dr Stuart FRANCIS
(THE BEATSON INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RESEARCH, Glasgow, United Kingdom)
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- I studied Medicinal Chemistry at University of Sussex before working at Celltech Chiroscience for 2 years working on integrins and kinases against inflammatory targets.
- I Subsequently joined Organon, in 2003 which latterly became MSD, at Newhouse for 9 years working on a number of GPCR targets including Cannabinoids and aminergics.
- Since 2011 I have worked on several kinase and Protein Protein Interactions (PPI) projects with a particular interest in fragment screening and Protacs to help validate novel and challenging oncology targets.
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The Mechanism of Outer Membrane Protein Insertion by BamA and its Role as a Target for Novel Antibiotic (PL10)
 | Prof. Sebastian HILLER
(UNIVERSITY OF BASEL, Basel, Switzerland) |
Discovery of ABL001, an Allosteric Inhibitor of BCR-ABL: Fragments, Biophysics, Structure and Chemistry (PL11)
 | Dr Wolfgang JAHNKE
(NOVARTIS INSTITUTES FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH, Basel, Switzerland)
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Wolfgang Jahnke is a Director and leading scientist in the Protein Sciences department at Novartis in Basel, Switzerland, where he is responsible for the development and application of NMR spectroscopy and other biophysical methods for lead discovery at Novartis.
Wolfgang received his PhD with Prof. Horst Kessler at the Technische Universität München. He worked with Peter Wright at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, before joining Novartis. In his 20 years at Novartis, Wolfgang has helped to pioneer the application of protein NMR spectroscopy and fragment-based approaches in drug discovery. His contributions were internally and externally recognized by the Novartis Leading Scientist award, the Novartis President’s Award for the discovery of ABL001, and the Industrial Investigator Award by the Swiss Chemical Society. Wolfgang has co-authored more than 80 scientific publications and patents, and has co-edited two books on fragment-based lead discovery. Close window |
Targeted Delivery - Strategies to Help your Drug Substances get to the Right Place
Using Small Molecules to Engineer and Explore Human Immunity (PL20)
 | Prof. David SPIEGEL
(YALE UNIVERSITY, New Haven, United States)
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David Spiegel, MD, PhD is a Professor at Yale University with appointments in the departments of Chemistry and Pharmacology. He is also the Chief Scientific Advisor and co-founder of Kleo Pharmaceuticals, and serves as Founding Scientific Advisor to Kymera Therapeutics. The central focus of Professor Spiegel’s research has been the development of novel, small molecule-based strategies for manipulating and regulating human immunity and other biological processes. Over the course of his career, Dr. Spiegel has co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and has obtained over a dozen patents. Close window |
Intracellular and Tissue Specific Targeting of Therapeutic Modalities (PL22)
 | Dr Vadim DUDKIN
(JANSSEN DISCOVERY SCIENCES, Lansdale, United States)
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Vadim Dudkin is Senior Director and Head, RNA & Targeted Therapeutics group within Janssen Discovery Sciences, Johnson and Johnson. Vadim is responsible for leading research teams at La Jolla, CA, Spring House, PA, and South San Francisco, CA sites focusing on nucleic acid therapeutics including oligonucleotides and large nucleic acids as well as intracellular and tissue specific targeted modalities. In his previous role at Janssen, Vadim was leading research at Centyrex internal venture. Vadim joined Janssen from Merck, where he was engaged in small molecule, vaccine and siRNA discovery. Close window |
SBT6050, a HER2-Directed TLR8 Immunotac™ Therapeutic, is a Potent Human Myeloid Cell Agonist with Tumor-Localized Activity (PL23)
 | Dr Valerie ODEGARD
(SILVERBACK THERAPEUTICS, Seattle, United States)
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Valerie Odegard, Ph.D., is the Chief Scientific Officer of Silverback Therapeutics. She has over 15 years of experience in immunotherapy drug development across multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to Silverback, Dr. Odegard served as Vice President of R&D at Juno Therapeutics, where she was responsible for advancing novel cellular immunotherapies into clinical development. Prior to Juno, she held research leadership positions at Novo Nordisk and Trubion Pharmaceuticals, where she oversaw the discovery and preclinical development of therapeutics for oncology and inflammatory conditions. Dr. Odegard received her Ph.D. in Immunobiology from Yale University. Close window |
Discovery of Tumor-Targeted TLR7/8 Immune-Stimulating Antibody Conjugates (ISAC): A New Class of Immuno-Oncology Therapeutics (PL21)
 | Dr Brian SAFINA
(BOLT BIOTHERAPEUTICS, Redwood City, United States)
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Brian Safina, Ph.D., serves as vice president for Bolt Biotherapeutics, where he leads chemistry and bioconjugation toward developing novel immuno-oncology therapeutics. He joined Bolt in 2018 with over a decade of medicinal chemistry experience at Genentech. Dr. Safina has made significant contributions to the discovery of multiple clinical candidates in the areas of oncology, immunology and neuroscience. Dr. Safina holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, San Diego, where he worked in the laboratories of K.C. Nicolaou. Close window |
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