2020 Nauta Pharmacochemistry Award for Prof. Adriaan IJzerman
The 2020 Nauta Pharmacochemistry Award for Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology has been awarded to: Prof. Adriaan IJzerman (Leiden University).
For his leading contributions as a pioneer of GPCR drug discovery and structural biology, and his support of the medicinal chemistry and chemical biology community. His research led to over 450 publications, many of them achieving high international visibility. An excellent mentor and lecturer, Ad IJzerman played an active role in the International LACDR School on Medicinal Chemistry. He also chaired the medicinal chemistry division of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society, organized many scientific symposia, and led several international research networks.
The "Nauta Pharmacochemistry Award for Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology" was established to honour the memory of Prof. Dr. W. Th. Nauta, whose activities have been very important for the advancement of Medicinal Chemistry in general, and the development of international organisational structures for this discipline.
The Nauta Award will acknowledge outstanding results of scientific research in the field of Medicinal Chemistry obtained by scientists without restriction regarding nationality. The award is given biennially and consists of a diploma, € 7.500 and an invitation to present a lecture at an EFMC-ISMC symposium.
KNCV Medicinal Chemistry Presentation Award 2019
At the Discovery session of the FIGON Dutch Medicines Days 2019 in Leiden, the presentation prize was awarded to Tom van der Wel (Leiden University; group Mario van der Stelt) for his presentation Precise gene editing reveals role of FES tyrosine kinase in neutrophil phagocytosis via SYK activation. The prize consists of € 500, representation at EFMC-Young Medicinal Chemist Symposium 2020 and a grant for EFMC-ISMC2020 in Basel.
FIGON Poster Prizes 2019
At the Discovery session of the FIGON Dutch Medicines Days 2019 in Leiden, two poster prizes (€ 150) were awarded:
In the category 'Cell and Signaling' Iris Leijten-van de Gevel (Eindhoven University of Technology; group Luc Brunsveld) for the poster Elucidating the prerequisites of forming the allosteric pocket in RORgt.
In the category 'Receptor/Ligand and Channel/Transporter' Huub Sijben (Leiden University; group Ad IJzerman) for the poster Development of a label-free, whole-cell assay to measure activity of the norepinephrine transporter (NET/SLC6A2).
Dr. Marc Baggelaar wins Dutch Medicinal Chemistry Prize 2017-2018
On 22 March 2019, during the symposium of the Division Medicinal Chemistry of the KNCV, Dr. Marc Baggelaar was awarded the Dutch Medicinal Chemistry Prize 2017-2018 for his dissertation entitled Activity-based protein profiling of diacylglycerol lipases. The prize - consisting of a certificate, a small sculpture, and a EUR 1,000 cash prize made available by MercachemSyncom - is awarded for the best dissertation in the field of medicinal chemistry research published between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2018. In April 2017 Dr. Baggelaar obtained his PhD cum laude under the supervision of Prof. dr. Mario van der Stelt and Prof. Dr. Hermen Overkleeft at the Leiden University. Part of the research was conducted in the top-notch research group of Prof. Dr. Benjamin Cravatt at the Scripps research institute in La Jolla (USA).
The panel of judges consisted of Prof. Dr. Christa Müller (University of Bonn), Prof. Dr. Marcel Hilbert (Laboratoire d’Innovation Thérapeutique), Dr. Laura Heitman (Universiteit Leiden) and Dr. Hans Meissner (MercachemSyncom). After stringent rules for selection by principal investigators four dissertations were submitted for consideration by the judges.
Dr. Baggelaar’s thesis describes the identification, development and application of novel chemical tools and methodologies to study the function of diacylglycerol lipases in the endocannabinoid system. His research has resulted in in nineteen publications, including five where he is first author. Noteworthy are the publications in Nature Communications, ACS Chemical Biology, J. Am. Chem. Soc. and Angewandte Chemie. The work of Dr. Baggelaar is very multidisciplinary, original and groundbreaking. It ranges from synthetic organic chemistry, structural biology, biochemical evaluation, and cellular assays, which he mostly performed himself. Moreover, the research resulted in ex vivo and in vivo experiments, where his probes were used to understand the complex biology. In his thesis he demonstrated a skillful writing style, with an extensive and educational introduction and pleasant lay-out through-out.
Marc Baggelaar presented his work during the symposium ‘Postgenomic Strategies in Drug Discovery’ (ca. 115 attendees). Currently he is doing postdoctoral research as a Marie Curie fellow in the group of Prof. Dr. Ed Tate at Imperial College London.
KNCV Division Medicinal Chemistry FIGON-DMD awards 2018
At FIGON’s Dutch Medicines Days (DMD) 2018 in Ede, the Netherlands, the Division Medicinal Chemistry of the KNCV awarded the following prizes for contributions to the Medicinal Chemistry session:
Presentation Award, EUR 500 and representation at EFMC-Young Medicinal Chemist Symposium2018 in Athens, Greece:
Jorick Bruins (Wageningen University)
Functionalization of tumour-targeting antibodies via enzymatic oxidation of tyrosine to 1,2-quinones
Poster Prize, EUR 200:
Tasia Amelia (Leiden University)
Revealing the activation mechanism of human adenosine A2A receptor by non-ribose ligands
KNCV Division Medicinal Chemistry FIGON-DMD awards 2017
At FIGON’s Dutch Medicines Days (DMD) 2017 in Ede, the Netherlands, the Division Medicinal Chemistry of the KNCV awarded the following prizes for contributions to the Medicinal Chemistry session:
Presentation Award, EUR 500 and representation at EFMC-Young Medicinal Chemist Symposium 2018 in Ljubljana, Slovenia:
Mr. Anthe Janssen (Leiden University)
Synthesis and biological evaluation of BIA 10-2474:an irreversible and aspecific FAAH inhibitor
Poster Prize, EUR 250:
Mr. Timo de Groof (VU Amsterdam)
Identification and characterization of nanobodies targeting HCMV-encoded US28
Dr. Marcel Scheepstra wins Dutch Medicinal Chemistry Prize 2015-2016
On 17 March 2017, during the symposium of the Division Medicinal Chemistry of the KNCV, Dr. Marcel Scheepstra was awarded the Dutch Medicinal Chemistry Prize 2015-2016 for his dissertation entitled Molecular modulation of nuclear receptor conformational states. The prize, consisting of a certificate, a small sculpture, and a EUR 1,000 cash prize made available by Mercachem BV, is awarded for the best dissertation in the field of medicinal chemistry research published between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2016. Dr. Scheepstra completed his PhD in September 2016 under the supervision of Prof. dr. Luc Brunsveld and Dr. Lech Milroy at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
The panel of judges consisted of four members: Prof. dr. Pieter Van der Veken (Antwerp University), Dr. Gary Tresadern (Janssen Pharmaceutica R&D, Toledo), Dr. Laura Heitman (Leiden University) and Dr. Leon van Berkom (Mercachem). In total, eight dissertations were submitted for consideration by the judges. Dr. Scheepstra’s work describes the effect of small ligands of diverse chemical, structural, and functional nature on nuclear receptor conformations in relation to protein-protein interactions. His research has resulted in several publications in renowned journals including Nature Communications, ACS Chemical Biology and Angewandte Chemie. The prize was awarded to Dr. Scheepstra for his groundbreaking scientific work as well as his proficient manner of writing. The judges hailed his extensive and educational introduction and pleasant style of writing and lay-out.
Marcel Scheepstra presented his work during the symposium ‘Small molecules and biologicals in cancer immunotherapy’. He currently works as Senior Scientist in the Medicinal Chemistry Department of Mercachem BV.
KNCV Division Medicinal Chemistry FIGON-DMD prizes 2016
At FIGON’s Dutch Medicines Days (DMD) 2016 in Ede, the Netherlands, the Division Medicinal Chemistry of the KNCV awarded the following prizes for contributions to the Medicinal Chemistry session:
Presentation Award, EUR 500 and representation at EFMC-Young Medicinal Chemist Symposium 2018 in Vienna:
Mr. M. Yağız Ünver (University of Groningen)
Expanding the toolbox of protein-templated reactions for hit identification
Posterprize, € 250:
Mrs. Lindsey Burggraaff (LACDR, Leiden University)
Predicting SGLT1 Compound Activity with Proteochemometric Modeling
Dr. Dong Guo wins Dutch Medicinal Chemistry Prize 2013-2014
On 27 March 2015, the Dutch Medicinal Chemistry Prize 2013-2014 was awarded to Dr. Don Guo during the annual spring symposium of the Division Medicinal Chemistry of the KNCV for his dissertation entitled Drug-Target Residence Time. A case for the adenosine A1 and A2a receptors. The prize, consisting of a certificate and a sum of EUR 1,000 made available by Mercachem BV, is awarded for the best dissertation in the field of medicinal chemistry research published from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2014. Dr. Dong Guo obtained his PhD in June 2014 under the supervision of Prof. dr. Ad IJzerman for work conducted at the division of Dr. Laura Heitman of Leiden University.
The panel of judges, consisting of Prof. dr. Koen Augustyns (University of Antwerp), Dr. Laurent Provins (UCB Pharma), Dr. Floris van Delft (SynAffix) and Dr. Anita Wegert (Mercachem), awarded the prize to Dr. Guo because he was able to further develop and apply an emerging concept within medicinal chemistry, that of drug-target residence time. Dr. Guo has optimised the residence time of a series of ligands with high affinity for the adenosine receptor and demonstrated its significance for medicinal chemistry. To this end, Dr. Guo used a range of techniques for synthetic biochemistry, binding of radio ligands and cell-based functional studies, and also developed and validated various kinetic methods, among which a high-throughput screening method for industrial medicinal chemistry applications. Dr. Guo’s active involvement in and talent for research is evident, among other things, from his long list of publications, which includes more than 10 papers as PhD student as well as four as co-author during his Master’s studies.
KNCV Division Medicinal Chemistry FIGON-DMD awards 2014
At FIGON’s Dutch Medicines Days (DMD) 2014 in Ede, the Netherlands, the Division Medicinal Chemistry of the KNCV awarded the following prizes for contributions to the Medicinal Chemistry session:
Presentation Award , € 500:
Indira Nederpelt (Leiden University / LACDR, Leiden)
Kinetic characterization of clinically used GnRH peptide agonists
Poster Prize , € 250:
Dong Guo (Leiden University / LACDR, Leiden)
Molecular mechanism of allosteric modulation at G protein-coupled receptors: insight from a binding kinetics study at the human adenosine A1 receptor
PerkinElmer prizes 2013
At the FIGON-Dutch Medicines Days 2013 the following prizes were awarded:
PerkinElmer Presentation Prize:
- Shared 1st prize: Saskia Nijmeijer (VU University Amsterdam)
Molecular determinants of biased histamine receptor signaling - Shared 1st prize: Dr. Dipen Shah (Leiden University)
Rapid 3D structural information on protein-ligand complexes by solution NMR
PerkinElmer Poster Prize:*
Saskia Nijmeijer (VU University Amsterdam)
Brickwork instead of Prefab: fragment survey to understand biased GPCR signaling
* Saskia Nijmeijer also won the FIGON-DMD Poster Award with this poster.
Dr. Ir. Harald Albers wins Dutch Medicinal Chemistry Prize 2011-2012
On 22 March 2013, during the annual spring symposium of the Division Medicinal Chemistry of the KNCV, the Dutch Medicinal Chemistry Prize 2011-2012 was awarded to Dr. ir. Harald Albers for his dissertation entitled Development of ATX and DUSP inhibitors; Inhibiting phosphate ester hydrolysis in biology. The prize, a certificate and a cash prize of EUR 1,000, was made possible by Mercachem BV and is intended for the best dissertation in the field of medicinal chemistry published from 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2012. Harald Albers completed his PhD in April 2012 at Leiden University under the supervision of Prof. dr. Hermen Overkleeft en Prof. dr. Jacques Neefjes. He conducted his research in Prof. dr. Huib Ovaa’s group, under cosupervision of Wouter Moolenaar at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam.
The panel of judges, consisting of Prof. dr. Christa E. Müller (University of Bonn), Prof. dr. Alexander Dömling (University of Groningen), Dr. Floris van Delft (Radboud University Nijmegen) and Dr. Geert Jan Sterk (Mercachem), awarded the prize to Dr. ir. Albers because of his profound and detailed knowledge of many facets of medicinal chemistry. With a mix of fundamental mechanistic insight, smart design, a talent for biochemistry, and detailed analysis and interpretation of results, Harald Albers combined a diversity of disciplines to successfully develop potent and selective inhibitors for two specific enzymes: autotaxin and dual specificity phosphatases. The panel of judges was impressed by the smart design and the amount of synthetic work carried out by the candidate, allowing him to develop the first nanomolar inhibitor of autotoxin. The candidate also has exceptional communication and presentation skills, which has resulted in a large number of publications in high-impact journals. Last but not least, it is worth mentioning that the candidate’s education path has been anything but traditional. After studying at an agricultural college, he completed higher general secondary and pre-university education before enrolling at Eindhoven University of Technology, where he graduated with distinction under the supervision of Prof. dr. Bert Meijer.
PerkinElmer prizes 2012
At the FIGON-Dutch Medicines Days 2012 the following prizes were awarded:
PerkinElmer Presentation Prize:
Dr. Jelle Reinen (Div. of Molecular Toxicology, VU University Amsterdam)
Screening and employment of bacterial cytochrome P450 BM3 mutants for biocatalytic production of drug metabolites
PerkinElmer Poster Prize:
Dr. Kristina Orrling (Division Medicinal Chemistry, VU University Amsterdam)
Jointly changing the future for human African sleeping sickness - PDE inhibitors as Trypocidals
Older news (in Dutch)
