The Division of Medicinal Chemistry held its annual officer elections in October, 2000. The election results have now been tabulated and the new members of the Executive Committee for 2001 are:
Vice Chair - Wayne Brouillette (University of Alabama at Birmingham)Industrial Councilor - Jim Monn (Eli Lilly and Co.) (2001-2003) )Joe Yevich, the other candidate for Industrial Councilor, will serve as the Alternate Councilor. Congratulations to our new EC members, who will begin their terms January 1, 2001! It should be duly noted that all votes were counted (including those with dimpled CHAD's), and no recounts were requested (not even in Florida)!!
Phil Portoghese provided a report on the status of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Submissions from Europe have increased significantly, but the overall submission of manuscripts has remained nearly constant. This effect was attributed to a reduction in industrial submissions. For this reason, the Journal will initiate on-line submission of communications. Electronic subscription levels are on the rise, while print subscriptions have declined. The Journal maintains an impact factor of 4.5.
Dan Rich reported on the status of the National MedChem symposium, to be held at the Wisconsin Memorial Union on June 27-July 2, 2004.. The details pertaining to the site are being worked out, and planning is well underway. The Committee received an update on the 2002 National MedChem Symposium, to be held in San Diego in June of 2002. Dan Cook nominated Dr. Yitzhak Tor, Assistant Professor at UCSD, as Program Chair, and informed us that UCSD will serve as host for the symposium. The Committee unanimously approved Dr. Tor as Program Chair.
Bill Greenlee presented a proposal for a Historical Symposium to be presented at the Chicago meeting (in conjunction with the 125th Anniversity of ACS). A full-day symposium with an associated dinner and reception was suggested. The LRPC will be responsible for proposing a list of speakers.
The Awards Nominating Committee for 2001 will be chaired by Ken Kirk.
Membership Committee - Division membership is now greater than 9,400. The issues of recruiting new members and retaining members were considered.
Annual Reports in Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 35 is complete, and was mailed to Division members in October. A new 3-year contract with Academic Press was negotiated by Annette Doherty, and each copy of Annual Reports will be increased in cost by $1.00. It was proposed that a dues increase of $2.00 per year be implemented in all membership catagories to offset increased publication and programming costs.
The program for the 221st American Chemical Society Meeting to be held in San Diego, CA, is as follows:
SUN AM - Natural Products: Nature's Combichem
SUN PM - HIV Co-Receptors
SUN EVE - Posters
MON AM - PPAR and Other Orphan Nuclear Receptors I
MON PM - PPAR and Other Orphan Nuclear Receptors II
MON PM - EFMC Symposium
TUES AM - Award Symposium
TUES PM - Award Symposium
WED AM - Accelerating Drug Discovery with SDDD Tools
WED PM - Candidate Enhancement Technologies
WED ALL - Posters
THUR AM - Drug-Membrane Interactions
THUR PM - Protease-Activated Receptor (PAR) Antagonists
As always, General Oral sessions (4-5) will be added in the appropriate slots. Contact information for LRPC members can be found on the Division WWW site at http://wiz2.pharm.wayne.edu/lrpcmem.html.
The program for the 222nd American Chemical Society Meeting to be held in Chicago, IL, is as follows:
SUN AM - Farnesyl Transferase Inhibitors
SUN AM - General Oral Session
SUN PM - Non-Taxoid Tubulin
SUN PM - General Oral Session
SUN EVE - Posters
MON AM - Smissman Award Symposium
MON PM - Process Research II
MON PM - Proteasome Inhibitors
TUES AM - Student Fellowship Symposium
TUES AM - General Oral Session
TUES PM - Historical
TUES PM - New Therapies for Parasitic Infection
WED AM - Growth Hormone Secretagogues
WED PM - Neuropeptide Y
WED PM - General Oral Session
WED ALL - Posters
THURS AM - Cannabinoids
THURS AM - Genomics and Drug
THURS PM - Novel Approaches to the Discovery of Treatments for Psychiatric Disorders
In all likelyhood, this will be the last printed edition of the Division Newsletter to be distributed to the membership. In the future, the Newsletter will be available on the Internet as an html file, complete with pictures and links to sites or individuals mentioned in the text. The Newsletter will also be available from the Division website in PDF format. Those who would like a hard copy of the Newsletter can download and print the PDF file using Adobe Acrobat Reader, a freeware program that is readily available from the Adobe site. When future Newsletters are published, their availability will be announced on the Division LISTSERV (see below).
The WWW homepage for the Division of Medicinal Chemistry, located at http://wiz2.pharm.wayne.edu, is your best option for accessing up-to-the-minute information concerning the Division. The page has an easy-to-use graphic interface where users select topics on a site map. The homepage includes a What's New section for late-breaking announcements, an FTP site for public domain software, and an Employment section for posting academic, industrial, government and postdoctoral employment opportunities in Medicinal Chemistry. The Division LISTSERV is the most expedient method for disseminating announcements and other pertinent info. If you are not yet a member of the Division LISTSERV, you can subscribe by sending the following command to listserv@lists.wayne.edu:
In return, you will receive an E-mail detailing how to use the list. This LISTSERV is private, and thus you do not need to worry about receiving unwanted messages (SPAM). This list will be used to announce the availability of future Division Newsletters.
The ACSMEDI "virtual job service", located at http://wiz2.pharm.wayne.edu/employ.html, is currently a free service. Division members may post ads to the employment section in any of the four sections (industrial, academic, government, postdoctoral) by forwarding the text of the position announcement and any associated graphics by e-mail to Pat Woster at woster@wizard.pharm.wayne.edu.
Five $20,000 fellowships have been awarded to students in graduate programs engaged in medicinal chemistry research. A number of applications were reviewed by a committee of experts from both Academia and Industry. The sponsoring companies are: Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Hoechst-Marion Roussel, Wyeth-Ayerst, Parke-Davis. The recipients and (mentors) are:
Stacy J. Keding (Mentor: Prof. Dan Rich) - University of Wisconsin-Madison
Jeffrey A. Pfefferkorn (Mentor: K.C. Nicolaou) - Scripps Research Institute
Giselle Knudsen (Mentor: P.R. Ortiz de Montellan) - University of California at San Francisco
David L. Evers (Mentor: John C. Drach) - University of Michigan
Adam Richardson (Mentor: C. Ireland) - University fo Utah
Congratulations to the winners of these awards! We also thank the other applicants for the excellent proposals which were submitted.
The ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry announces the continuation of its Fellowship program. Five $20,000 fellowships will be awarded in 2001. The awards are for predoctoral students engaged in medicinal chemistry research in a Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Biochemistry, or Chemistry department listed in the current ACS Directory of Graduate Research. Nominations should include a complete student curriculum vitae, including education and work experience; a student bibliography, including reprints of articles; a complete project description including rationale (five-page limit) prepared by the candidate; transcripts of all post-high school work, including Graduate Record Examination scores (if available); three letters, including a nomination letter from the student's research advisor; and a letter from a university official with a commitment to cover tuition and all fees granted to other regular graduate students. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent resident visa holders at the time of application and must have at least one year of graduate school remaining at the time an award would begin September 1, 2001. Additional information (including a complete set of guidelines) can be obtained from:
All application materials for the awards are due on February 15, 2001 and must be received by Dr. Jane Aldrich (2001 Past Chair) at the above address.
The Division of Medicinal Chemistry makes 14 grants available annually of $600 each to aid young chemists in presenting papers at the ACS National Meetings.
Eligibility: The applicant must be an ACS member (student or affiliate) and not have previously been the recipient of this award. Each university department can have only one awardee.
Criteria for Selection: In order of priority, the following criteria will be used for selection of awards: Graduate Student, Postdoctoral Fellow, individual with less than five years post-Ph.D. experience. Scientific merit of the paper to be presented will also be considered.
Application Procedure: Send applications to:
Awardees will be notified of the granting of such an award in sufficient time so that the awardee can pre-register for the meeting. The awards will be made at the Division business meeting, which is held at each national meeting immediately before the Sunday night poster session and mixer. A complete application for the award appears below, which should be submitted with the abstract for the student's presentation:
Name of Applicant for Travel Grant ______________________________________________
Degree: _____________________________ Year Obtained _______________________________
Present Institution: _______________________________________________________________
Department: _____________________________________________________________________
Work to be reported was (check one or more):
Nominations are being solicited for the 2001 Smissman Bristol-Myers Squibb Award. This award is open to any scientist who, through his/her work or teaching, has had an impact on the way in which medicinal chemistry is practiced. The emphasis shall be placed on the long-term contributions, rather than a single important discovery.
Previous recipients of the award include Corwin Hansch (1975), Alfred Burger (1977), Everette May (1979), Adrien Albert (1981), Hamao Umezawa (1983), G. Ariëns (1985), Robert Abeles (1987), Lester Mitscher (1989), Philip Portoghese (1991), Leroy Townsend (1993), John Montgomery (1995), Joseph Cannon (1997), and Ralph Hirschmann (1999).
Nomination documentation, including a letter of nomination, a seconding letter, and a recent CV of the nominee, should be sent to Dr. Kenneth L. Kirk, Chair of the Awards Nominating Committee, by November 1, 2000. Nominators are encouraged to contact Dr. Kirk prior to submission at (301)-496-2619 (phone), (301)-402-4182 (fax), or kennethk@bdg8.niddk.nih.gov. Dr. Kirk's address is:
The Organic Division of the American Chemical Society is seeking to increase the involvement of Bachelor's- and Master's-level chemists in Divisional activities. Although these individuals regularly make important contributions in the workplace, all too often they receive little or no recognition for their efforts from the scientific community. As one of the means to address this situation, the Organic Division has instituted an annual symposium at the Fall ACS meeting to recognize the achievements of non-Ph.D. chemists. We are now seeking nominations for the coming year's program.
The tenth annual Symposium on Technical Achievements in Organic Chemistry will be held on August 29, during the 222th National Meeting of the ACS in Chicago, Illinois. The invited speakers will present their recent discoveries in basic or developmental research during 30 minute presentations. (As an awards symposium, under ACS bylaws there is no question and answer period.) Speakers are selected in a two-phase process. First, a letter of nomination is submitted to the Division on behalf of the nominee; then a subcommittee, composed of several members of the Organic Division Executive Committee, select the speakers based on several criteria: (a) evidence illustrating the creativity and independence of the nominee; (b) the nominee's publication and patent record; (c) any other information that documents the special achievements and/or contributions made by the nominee.
We encourage nominators to select candidates who are both excellent scientists and good communicators. To nominate a Bachelor's- or Master's-level chemist for this symposium, please send a letter describing the nominee's contributions and include a copy of the candidate's curriculum vitae. (Additional letters and supporting documents are most welcome, but not essential.) Nomination materials can be mailed to:
Questions may be directed to Dr. David J. Hart via E-mail at hart.10@osu.edu. Deadline for receipt of nominations is March 1, 2001. Information is also available in the Division of Organic Chemistry fall Newsletter located on the Web at: http://www.chem.unt.edu/acs/fall00newsletter.html.
The CU-Array Biopharma Symposium in Synthetic Organic and Medicinal Chemistry, sponsored by Array Biopharma and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado will be held on the Boulder, Colorado campus June 6-8, 2001. The purpose of the Symposium is to bring together academic and industrial scientists to discuss current problems and developments in the chemical and pharmaceutical sciences. Further information and registration materials may be obtained from Rosemary Trujillo, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Campus Box 215, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0215; Tel: 303-492-5728; Fax: 303-492-0439; email: rosemary.trujillo@colorado.edu, WWW: http://www.colorado.edu/chemistry/seminars/.
The Fourth Winter Conference on Medicinal and Bioorganic Chemistry will be held January 28 - February 2, 2001 in Steamboat Springs, CO. For more information, visit the conference website, located at http://www.mbcfoundation.org.
The 13th Noordwijkerhout-Camerino Symposium, entitled Trends in Drug Research, will be held May 6-11, 2001 in Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands. More information can be obtained from Prof. dr. H. Timmerman, LACDR/Dept. of Pharmacochemistry, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1083, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands. This symposium is jointly organized by the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society (KNCV) and the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry.
The following symposia will be offered by the Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Sector (BMCS) of the Royal Society for Chemistry:
The 2001 Gordon Conference on Medicinal Chemistry will be held August 5-10, 2001 at Henniker College in New London, NH. The scientific program for this meeting appears below:
