MedChem 2023

Kim Bonger obtained her MSc degree in Organic Chemistry from the Free University in Amsterdam in 2002. In 2008 she received her PhD in Bioorganic chemistry from Leiden University working under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Gijs van der Marel and Prof. Dr. Hermen Overkleeft on the design, synthesis and evaluation of dimeric ligands for G-protein coupled receptors involved in human reproduction. Starting in 2009, Kim switched fields to molecular biology and cell biology where she spends four years as a postdoc with Prof. Dr. Thomas Wandless at Stanford University working on molecular tools to control protein stability. In 2013 she returned to the Netherlands as an assistant professor in Chemical Biology at the Radboud University in Nijmegen where she was promoted to associate professor in 2021. Her research focuses on the development of novel bioorthogonal chemistry and chemoenzymatic methods for imaging, target discovery and precision medicine. In addition, she explores new strategies to understand and modulate the cellular mechanisms involved in (auto)immune diseases.

Martin Lowe is a medicinal chemistry leader with 17 years’ experience in the drug-discovery industry. He is currently working as a director of drug design at Exscientia, based in Oxford, seeking faster and smarter ways to discover new and better drugs. Previously he studied for a degree in chemistry at the University of Edinburgh and then followed this with a PhD at the University of Bristol. Martin is an inventor or author on 16 patents and papers working on projects in oncology, immunology and malaria.

Dr Dylan M. Lynch is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation (CeTPD), University of Dundee. Originally from Ireland, he studied medicinal chemistry at Trinity College Dublin and then conducted his PhD in organic chemistry at the same institution under Prof. Eoin Scanlan, where he researched therapeutic glycopeptides and radical-based ligation methodology. During his PhD studies, he was awarded a prestigious Fulbright research award and travelled to the University of Washington, Seattle to work with Prof. Champak Chatterjee on PROTACs for degrading viral proteases. Dylan is currently researching small-molecule probes for E3 ligases in the laboratory of Prof. Alessio Ciulli, seeking to hijack untapped E3 ligases for PROTAC development, and is particularly interested in developing ligands for SH2-domain containing proteins. His current research revolves around the SOCS family of proteins.

Tiago Rodrigues is currently an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon. He has published >70 papers in top tier journals, is inventor in 4 patents and leads the DigiChem Lab that focuses on merging machine learning with experimental medicinal chemistry and chemical biology. He is also a co-founder of TargTex SA, an European biotech company developing innovative medicines for Glioblastoma Multiforme.

Nada D. Savic is FWO senior researcher at KU Leuven University in Belgium, in the group of Professor Tatjana Parac Vogt. Her current FWO project is based on the synthesis and characterization of discrete Zr(IV) and Hf(IV) metal oxo clusters (MOCs) as artificial nanozymes for proteomics applications with tunable selectivity and solubility. Her previous postdoc study in the same group was focused on creating regioselective and tunable synthetic proteases based on metal substituted polyoxometalates (MS-POMs) for hydrolysis of amphiphilic and insoluble proteins. She is originally from Serbia, where she obtained PhD in Chemistry. Her PhD thesis was based on coordination and medicinal chemistry.

Former student of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, Boris Vauzeilles prepared his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Pierre Sinaÿ in the Chemistry Department of this institution. He then joined Prof. Julius Rebek, Jr. at MIT (Cambridge, Massachussets), for a post-doctoral experience. The group soon moved to the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, where Julius Rebek was promoted as Director of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology. Boris Vauzeilles then returned to France as a CNRS researcher (Institut de Chimie Moléculaire et des Matériaux d’Orsay, Université Paris-Saclay), and in 2012 he created, in parallel with his research in Orsay, a new team at the Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles in Gif-sur-Yvette, where he initiated in 2015 the Department of Chemical Biology. He is also the co-founder of a startup company, Diamidex, and was awarded, together with his group, the Prix La Recherche in 2015. His research is mainly focused on the use of synthetic chemistry to develop molecular tools designed to probe biological processes. Mainly educated as a synthetic glycochemist, he evolved towards the development of eco-friendly chemistry starting from biomass, design and synthesis of molecular devices for artificial photosynthetic systems for energy conversion, in vivo chemistry with the metabolic labeling of living bacterial lipopolysaccharides, and the development of new molecular probes for reactive oxygen species. Since early 2020, he is the Director of Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles (ICSN) and President of SCF-ChemBio, the new Chemical Biology Group from the French Chemical Society. SCF-ChemBio joined the European Federation for Medicinal chemistry and Chemical biology (EFMC).

Magnus is Senior Vice President Chemical Sciences and Development at Monte Rosa Therapeutics. Before joining Monte Rosa Magnus led Abbvie's Discovery Research Organisation in Germany focused on Alzheimer and Parkinson’s disease as Senior Director and Senior Research Fellow in Neuroscience since 2018. Prior to that Magnus held several positions at Eli Lilly where he worked for 17 years. These included Chief Scientific Officer for global Neuroscience Medicinal Chemistry and Head of Chemistry UK. Magnus started his career as team leader working for AstraZeneca after receiving his DPhil from the University of Oxford and a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Bonn.

Lorenzo Cianni embarked on his academic journey by earning his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of La Sapienza in Rome. During his pursuit of a master's degree in medicinal chemistry, he broadened his horizons through international experiences, including visits to Sun Yat Sen University in China and the University of Aveiro in Portugal in 2013. Taking his expertise to Portugal, Lorenzo worked as an associate researcher at the University of Porto under the guidance of Prof. Paula Gomes, focusing on peptide synthesis. His academic journey continued with a Ph.D. split between Brazil (University of Sao Paulo) and Germany (University of Bonn and University of Tubingen) in 2019. Under the supervision of Prof. Carlos Montanari, Prof. Jurgen Bajorath, and Prof. Michael Guthscow, Lorenzo dedicated his research to designing and synthesizing cysteine protease inhibitors as new therapeutic agents for different neglected tropical diseases. Building on his diverse experiences, Lorenzo further honed his organic chemistry skills as a scientist II at Selvita in Poznan. Having dedicated the past two years to the University of Antwerp, Lorenzo Cianni serves as a Marie Curie postdoctoral researcher. In the laboratory of Prof. Pieter Van der Veken, his research focuses on the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of tissue-targeted autophagy modulators. Beyond his academic pursuits, Lorenzo has made significant contributions to public outreach. He established a science blog, "Hoppy in Pharma," and co-organized Pint of Science in Antwerp. Additionally, he directed a course on peptide synthesis, sharing his expertise with fellow researchers.

I did my undergad studies in Strasbourg, France. I hold an engineer degree from the “Ecole Européenne de Chimie, Polymères et Matériaux” of Strasbourg and a master degree in Molecular and Supramolecular Chemistry from the University of Strasbourg. During my master thesis in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Françoise Colobert, I worked on the development of Atroposelective Sulfoxide-Directed Fujiwara-Moritani Reaction. In 2013, I joined the laboratory of Prof. Dr. François Diederich at the ETH Zurich to perform my PhD thesis and I worked on the discovery of inhibitors for Serine Hydroxymethyltransferase, as an innovative approach to tackle the Malaria disease. Afterwards, I did my postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Janine Cossy at ESPCI Paris, working on Novel manufacturing technologies of Artemisinin (a natural product used as frontline therapy for Malaria patient). In 2019, I joined UCB Biopharma as medicinal chemist and I have been working in the TPD field since then.