News

📢RSC Medicinal Chemistry is excited to announce that nominations for the 2025 RSC Medicinal Chemistry Emerging Investigator Lectureship are now open!

This is open to anyone within 12 yrs post-PhD, working independently in the field of medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. Past winners include Luca Laraia (2024), Christoph Nitsche (2023), and Nir London (2022).

Details about how to nominate can be found here: https://lnkd.in/eUzcEXMc

⏰Nominate before 31 October 2024!

Please send your nominations to our inbox, medchem-rsc@rsc.org

#RSCMedChem

The RSC BMCS is proud to announce that the 2024 Hall of Fame medal and certificate presentation to Dr Mike Hann will take place at Targeted Protein Degradation 4 conference on October 15-16 2024 at Cranfield University. As part of this exciting meeting, Mike will present his lecture “A career doing STUFF”.

Further details on the meeting can be found here: https://www.soci.org/events/fine-chemicals-group/2024/targeting-protein-degradation-4

The Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Sector (BMCS) is an important interest group within the UK’s Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), it’s main goal being to share knowledge within the sector, primarily by organizing high quality scientific meetings.

The group also supports learning and development, via grants to schools (£25,000 per year), travel bursaries to university students to attend science meetings, and Researcher Mobility Fellowships to encourage short exchange placements between academic institutions and industry. We also recognise excellence in science through a number of awards.

To find out more, see our ChemMedChem article:

Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Sector of The Royal Society of Chemistry: Promoting Chemistry Learning, Networking and Excellence for Baby Boomers through to Gen Alpha! – Bagal – ChemMedChem – Wiley Online Library

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.

Congratulations to Christoph Nitsche, the winner of the 2023 Emerging Investigator Lectureship. Dr Nitsche’s interdisciplinary research program focuses on infectious diseases, bioorthogonal chemistry, and peptide and protein modification. Please click on the below links to be taken to the website or blog post to read more about the winner and the Lectureship:

https://www.rsc.org/journals-books-databases/about-journals/rsc-medicinal-chemistry/rsc-medicinal-chemistry-emerging-investigator-lectureship-award/

https://blogs.rsc.org/md/2023/05/23/winner-of-the-2023-rsc-medicinal-chemistry-emerging-investigator-lectureship/?doing_wp_cron=1685455148.9952039718627929687500

Thanks to all our speakers, poster presenters, delegates, sponsors and exhibitors for making Postgraduate Symposium XVI at University of Oxford on 9 December 2022 a great success.

Congratulations to Nicola Ashman of University of Cambridge, winner of best oral presentation and Jennifer Carter of University of Oxford, runner-up. Winner of the best poster was Clara Gathmann of UCL, and runner-up was Harry Wilders of University of Strathclyde and GSK. Rebecca Stevens of University of Strathclyde and GSK was voted by delegates as winner of the people’s poster prize.

The past year has been another extremely challenging one, to say the least. I’d imagine that most committee members have had their full course of COVID vaccinations, and their booster shots too. I haven’t heard about a new round of boosters, but I wouldn’t bet against it!

In the face of these external challenges we have adapted and continued with our regular programme of activities. Virtual and blended meetings have gone ahead, and been tremendously successful, on both a scientific and financial basis, though it has to be said that delegate feedback from the blended meetings suggests there is a strong desire for a return to more physical meetings. The ESG, BMCS Lectureships, Hall of Fame and International Travel Prize Initiatives have carried on, and continued to draw interest from applicants as well as recognition for the impact of the Group. Our links with RSC Medicinal Chemistry have been strengthened, to mutual benefit, as have our interactions with other scientific societies and organisations. Many of the latter have looked to us for our experience and expertise in running virtual and hybrid meetings. I would like to convey my heartfelt thanks to everyone in the group who’s helped to drive these initiatives forward, they wouldn’t be happening without your hard work.

We are delighted to announce our new Editor-in-Chief for RSC Medicinal Chemistry, Professor Mike Waring.

“RSC Medicinal Chemistry is one of the premier medicinal chemistry journals and we look forward to continuing to publish cutting edge science with the highest standards of rigour. I hope that the work published in the journal will lead to the continued dissemination and evolution of best practice in our discipline that will drive our ability to deliver new therapies more effectively.”

About Mike:

Mike Waring is Chair of Medicinal Chemistry at Newcastle University and Head of Chemistry for the Cancer Research UK Newcastle Drug Discovery Unit.  He was previously Principal Scientist in Medicinal Chemistry at AstraZeneca.

Mike has worked mainly in the areas of diabetes and oncology and his work has contributed to the discovery of 14 drug candidates, including the marketed EGFR inhibitor osimertinib (Tagrisso™). He has made significant contributions to the field in many areas, perhaps most notably property-based optimisation, covalent inhibition, novel binding modes and new methods of hit generation.  He is a 2018 American Chemical Society Hero of Chemistry, recipient of the 2017 RSC Malcolm Campbell Medal, and an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

1. Overview
The BMCS ran its first hybrid event in collaboration with the SCI. The event was the 21st RSC / SCI Medicinal Chemistry Symposium, held on 13th-15th September 2021 both virtually and physically at Churchill College, Cambridge, UK, and it was highly successful.

2. Virtual Platforms
Vimeo was used for the live stream of the main technical programme on the recommendation of TC Digital (the AV company used and associated with Churchill College). The initial intention had been to use YouTube but the platform’s password-protection changed, and hence the change to Vimeo.
Zoom Meetings was used for networking, using one of the RSC’s licences, because it was gratis.

Zoom Meetings was also used for Posters (one licence) and for the Speaker set-up and Q&A (another licence). Again, this was on the recommendation of TC Digital as it was an easy platform to work with, inexpensive, and familiar to most users.

3. Role of AV Provider
In advance, TC Digital worked with each speaker and each flash presenter to create a recording for use on the day.

On the day, TC Digital set the cameras in the conference room, provided the sound mixing, communicated with the virtual speakers and chairs. They also managed the live Q&A in a dedicated Zoom Room. Two of the speakers delivered live presentations, and four of the speakers were live in the conference room for Q&A. The 2021 Malcolm Campbell Memorial Prize was presented in person and received via video link. This is the video with Sir Patrick Vallance receiving the Prize.

14 September 2021

Sir Patrick Vallance, UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser, today received the Malcolm Campbell Memorial Prize for 2021, on behalf of all British scientists and clinical researchers involved in the fight against COVID-19.

Sir Patrick was virtually presented with the award during the 21st RSC/SCI Medicinal Chemistry Symposium, held in Cambridge and organised by the Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Sector (BMCS) of the Royal Society of Chemistry

Sir Patrick said: “I want to thank you enormously on behalf of all scientists. To receive this Prize on behalf of  so many people across the UK who have been involved in the response to COVID and so the world-class science that’s really made the difference, not only in the UK but right the way across the world, is an honour.

Barely a week after the 48th AGM in March 2020 the whole of the UK went into lockdown, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the BMCS group have been living through a Chinese proverb, we have truly been living in interesting times.

I have been immensely impressed by the way in which the group has adapted and reacted to the rapidly evolving circumstances occurring in the wider society. Faced with tremendous uncertainties, we have nevertheless continued to drive forward with our many strands of activity, to the best of our collective abilities, demonstrating impressive flexibility, adaptability, and determination. Constrained by the pandemic, we have reformatted many of our longstanding meetings and continued to deliver a program of high-quality scientific events, educational support grants (ESG), and International Travel Prizes, under the most trying of external circumstances. Thank you to all my BMCS committee colleagues for this huge collective effort.