38th ACS National Medicinal Chemistry Symposium (NMCS 2024)

The Division of Medicinal Chemistry of the ACS organizes its National Medicinal Chemistry Symposium in even-numbered years since 1948. As per its tradition, this dynamic four day symposium aims to bring together medicinal chemists from across the country, and around the globe, working in the pharmaceutical industry, academia, regulatory agencies, and private research institutions.

The 2024 edition will be co-chaired by: Rheem A. Totah, University of Washington, USA, and Patrick J. Burke, Enlaza Therapeutics, La Jolla, CA, USA. The scientific program will be composed of six sessions presenting hot topics and emerging trends in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. In addition, the MEDI Awards will be celebrated as part of a dedicated session.

Session Topics

Recent Advances and Emerging Opportunities in Medicinal Chemistry
A Medicinal Chemist’s Toolbox
Advances in Protein Proximity Induction and Degradation
Chemical Perturbation of Methylation towards Anticancer Drug Discovery
Infectious Disease Drug Discovery
Not a One Trick Pony – Non-catalytic Kinase Function and Pseudokinases as Drug Targets
Targeted Drug Delivery
Use of Machine Learning in Drug Discovery

Spaeakers Include

Transforming Medicinal Chemistry: New Technologies and Therapeutic Modalities
Dr Maria-Jesus BLANCO, ATAVISTIK BIO, Cambridge, United States
A Synopsis of the Impact of Small Molecules on Human Health and Longevity
Dr Nicholas MEANWELL, BRISTOL MYERS SQUIBB, Wallingford, United States
Inhibition of Protein Aggregation and the Development of AKV9 (formerly NU-9) for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Other Neurodegenerative Diseases
Prof. Richard B. SILVERMAN, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, Evanston, United States
Systematic Approaches to Targeting Native Protein-Protein Interactions
Prof. Michelle ARKIN, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, San Francisco, United States
Magnet Biomedicine’s TrueGlue Platform: A Systematic Approach Towards the Discovery of Molecular Glues for Therapeutic Intervention
Dr. Matthew HAYWARD, MAGNET BIOMEDICINE, Boston , United States
Hold and Kill: RIPTAC™ Therapeutics Present a Novel Mechanism to Conquer Cancer
Dr Kat KAYSER-BRICKER, HALDA THERAPEUTICS, New Haven, United States
Informatics Accelerated CRBN Glue Lead Discovery
Dr Lingling SHEN, NOVARTIS, Cambridge, United States
From Serendipity to Rational Design: Taking Molecular Glue Degraders to New Heights
Dr Owen WALLACE, MONTE ROSA THERAPEUTICS, Boston, United States
Ubiquitin Ligases and Molecular Glue Degraders
Prof. Ning ZHENG, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, Seattle, United States
Development of Potent and Specific Inhibitors for Methyltransferases
Prof. Rong HUANG, PURDUE UNIVERSITY, West Lafayette, IN, United States
Discovery of Novel Small-molecule Degraders for Protein Methyltransferases and Development of New Approaches to Target Undruggable Oncoproteins
Prof. Jian JIN, ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI, New York, United States
Discovery of MRTX1719, a Synthetic Lethal Approach for the Treatment of MTAP-Deleted Cancers
Dr Christopher SMITH, MIRATI THERAPEUTICS, San Diego, United States
Targeting Infectious Diseases with Kinase Inhibitors
Dr David DREWRY, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL, Chapel Hill, United States
Development of Quinazolinone-based Encephalitic Alphavirus Inhibitors that Show in Vivo Efficacy
Dr Jennifer GOLDEN, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, Madison, United States
Invention of MK-7602: an Antimalarial Drug Discovery Collaboration
Dr John A. MCCAULEY, MERCK & CO. INC, Blue Bell, PA 19422, United States
Targeted Radionuclide Therapy: the Promise and Challenges of Short-lived Alpha-emitting Actinides
Dr Rebecca ABERGEL, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Berkeley, United States
Development of a Novel TOPO1i ADC Platform: from Concept to Pipeline Application
Dr Raffaele COLOMBO, ZYMEWORKS, Vancouver, Canada
Harnessing the power of ADCs by careful selection of target, linker, payload, indication, and combination partner
Dr Sharsti SANDALL, SEAGEN, Bothell, WA, United States
Drugging Functional Sites on Pseudokinases
Dr Arvin DAR, MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING CANCER CENTER, New York, United States
Discovery of the TYK2 Pseudokinase Domain as a Drug Target
Dr John TOKARSKI, BRISTOL MYERS SQUIBB, New York, United States
Discovery of TAK-279, a Highly Potent and Selective TYK2 Pseudokinase Inhibitor for the Treatment of Autoimmune Diseases, through Structure-based Drug Design
Dr Angela TOMS, NIMBUS THERAPEUTICS, INC., Cambridge, United States
Non-additivity in Drug Design
Dr Bernd KUHN, F. HOFFMANN-LA ROCHE, Basel, Switzerland
Title to be confirmed
Dr Veerabahu SHANMUGASUNDARAM, BRISTOL MYERS SQUIBB, CAMBRIDGE, United States
Widening the Therapeutic Window: Kinetic Selectivity and Target Vulnerability
Prof. Peter TONGE, STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY, Stony Brook, United States
Title to be confirmed
Prof. Marcey WATERS, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA , Chapel Hill, United States
Title to be confirmed
Dr David WEINSTEIN, VIVIDION THERAPEUTICS, San Diego, United States
Machine Learning Guided Design of Peptide-based Antibiotics and Antivirals
Dr Gaurav BHARDWAJ, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, Seattle, United States
Title to be confirmed
Dr Gavin HIRST, ATOMWISE, San Francisco, United States
Driving Innovation with Machine Learning: Case Studies from Real-world Drug Discovery Programs
Dr Jennifer KNIGHT, SCHRODINGER, New York, United States
Evolving Drug Discovery
Dr Mark MURCKO, DEWPOINT THERAPEUTICS, Boston, United States
Artificial Intelligence in Drug Discovery – Revolution, Evolution, or Complete Nonsense
Dr Pat WALTERS, RELAY THERAPEUTICS, Cambridge, United States
Generate-make-test: AI-in-the-loop High-throughput Drug Discovery
Dr Matt WELBORN, ENTOS, INC., La Jolla, United States