EFMC-Yearbook-2020

Editorial
Dear colleagues,
EFMC is a very active and diverse organisation, with 26
national member societies, multiple international partners,
scientific events and initiatives. It recently reviewed
its strategy and agreed on future activities at a workshop,
in February 2019, reaffirming EFMC’s aspirations. I
am happy to report that we could implement many of
the recommendations and proposals that came out of
this workshop by the end of the year. This allowed for
an improved focus, better processes, and some creative
changes with regard to EFMC’s initiatives. Thanks to the
involvement of many, we made significant progress in
better integrating chemical biology, improving communication,
and generating opportunities for young scientists.
It is a great pleasure to serve a community so involved
and so dynamic.
Before providing an overview of the most important
events of 2019 and of the rich range of activities planned
by our Federation for 2020, I would like to thank Gabriele
Costantino (Italy), Peter Molenveld (The Netherlands) and
Franz Von Nussbaum (Germany) for their long-time contribution
to the EFMC Council. Their successors are Iwan
De Esch (The Netherlands), Anna K.H. Hirsh (Germany)
and Gianluca Sbardella (Italy), to whom I extend a warm
welcome.
I also thank the Executive Committee (EC) members for
constant support and valuable advice. Special thanks go
to Rui Moreira, who accepted the position of President-
Elect and who will be my successor in 2021. I welcome
Franz Von Nussbaum as new EC member, looking forward
to a close collaboration. The other EC members
are Anders Karlén (Secretary), Antoni Torrens (Treasurer),
Matt Tozer and Luc Van Hijfte, with the support of Henk
Timmerman as EFMC Advisor.
Finally, I am happy to announce our two new Corporate
Members: Galchimia & Mercachem-Syncom, which joined
the group of companies financially supporting EFMC, its
mission to advance the science of medicinal chemistry
and chemical biology, as well as activities for young
scientists. EFMC greatly appreciates the generosity and
commitment of all its Corporate Members.
A REVIEW OF 2019
EFMC had a busy year in 2019, including two major events.
First was the biennial EFMC|ACSMEDI MedChem Frontiers,
which took place on June 10-13, 2019 in the beautiful
city of Krakow, Poland. This event was co-organized
with ACS MEDI, to facilitate interactions between the
European and American communities. It was hosted by
the Polish Society of Medicinal Chemistry, and attracted
over 250 international participants. Then came the EFMC
International Symposium on Advances in Synthetic and
Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC-ASMC’19), which is the forum
where organic and medicinal chemists meet, and which
gathered 600 participants in Athens on September 1-5,
2019. We are delighted that this 8th edition confirmed
the success of this series, reaching more and more scientists
around the globe. The scientific programme defined
by Varinder Aggarwal (University of Bristol, UK) &
Spiros Liras (Biogen, USA) was excellent.
The EFMC Young Medicinal Chemist Symposium (EFMC-
YMCS’19) immediately followed the EFMC-ASMC’19 meeting
in Athens. It was a pleasure to see the ever-increasing
number of young scientists taking part in this lively
meeting, with excellent scientific contributions and lots
of active networking. I am grateful to Manolis Fousteris
(University of Patras, Greece), his committee and the
EFMC Young Scientists Network for having put together
an interesting programme, and for creating perfect conditions
for a dynamic exchange, which participants clearly
appreciated.
Masterfully organised by Iwan De Esch and Henk
Timmerman, the 15th EFMC Short Course took place
end of April 2019 and focused on Fragment-based Drug
Discovery. This series will continue with a Course on New
Opportunities in GPCR Drug Discovery, scheduled for
May 17-20, 2020 and organised by Gyorgy Keseru and Rob
Leurs.
To learn more about the events, I invite you to read the
full reports on pages 10 to 13 of this Yearbook.
The EFMC working groups provided valuable contributions
on EU policy, communication, chemical biology and
best practices. The active contribution of many partici-
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