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The European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC) is proud to announce the names of the 2012 EFMC Awardees.
The Prous Institute – Overton and Meyer Award for New Technologies in Drug Discovery
Dr. Harren Jhoti
Astex Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, UK
To encourage innovation and investigation in technological development related to drug discovery, the EFMC awards the Prous Institute – Overton and Meyer Prize to the author of discovery, evaluation or use of new technologies.
The EFMC is pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2012 Prous Institute-Overton and Meyer Award for outstanding achievements in the field of New Technologies in Drug Discovery is Dr. Harren Jhoti.
This award acknowledges Dr. Jhoti’s pioneering research which has led to the development and successful application of fragment-based lead finding strategies in drug discovery, an approach which is now widely and increasingly used throughout the pharmaceutical industry and in academia. The brilliant results achieved by Dr. Jhoti are documented in more than 60 publications. Dr. Jhoti is not only a highly creative scientist, but also an accomplished entrepreneur whose work has culminated in the foundation of Astex, a Biotech company which has developed 6 fragment-derived compounds into clinical trials so far.
The Nauta Award for Pharmacochemistry
Professor Alexander Levitzki
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
By awarding the NAUTA prize, the EFMC acknowledges and recognizes outstanding achievements in the advancement of Medicinal Chemistry and the development of international organizational structures in Medicinal Chemistry.
The EFMC is pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2012 Nauta Award for outstanding achievements in the field of Medicinal Chemistry is Professor Alexander Levitzki.
Prof. Levitzki’s research focuses on cell signaling pathways with a special emphasis on the role of tyrosine kinases. He has pioneered the therapeutic concept that tyrosine kinase function can be selectively modulated by small molecule inhibitors, in face of worldwide skepticism whether sufficient selectivity can be obtained. His research opened new territory leading to a number of novel key therapeutic approaches with significant impact in medicinal chemistry, drug development, and advancement of human health care.
Alexander Levitzki has been the early pioneer in the field of kinase inhibition and antitumor therapy with his work being documented in more than 350 publications. The development and launch of several Protein Tyrosine Kinase inhibition-based cancer therapies highlights the impact Alexander Levitzki’s creative and innovative research has had on medicinal chemistry and industrial R&D with successful drugs already on or coming to the market.
The UCB – Ehrlich Award for Excellence in Medicinal Chemistry
Professor Krzysztof Jozwiak
Medical University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland
The EFMC awards the UCB-Ehrlich Award for Excellence in Medicinal Chemistry to a young scientist for outstanding research in the field of Medicinal Chemistry in its broadest sense.
The EFMC is pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2012 UCB – Ehrlich Award for outstanding achievements in the field of Medicinal Chemistry is Professor Krzysztof Jozwiak.
This award is the recognition of Prof. Jozwiak’s excellent contributions in the area of ligand design for nicotinic, AMPA and adrenergic receptors using a variety of theoretical and experimental techniques to characterize drug-receptor interactions, stereoselectivity of drug action and application of various computational methods to understanding drug action. In particular, he has developed fenetrol derivatives which are selective for ˛2-adrenergic receptors by careful study and synthesis of different stereoisomers. These compounds are of interest in the cardiovascular area as well as for the potential treatment of brain tumors.
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