Tate group researcher and Merck Cup regular Dr Elena De Vita coached a team in the 2023 edition of the competition
The 13th edition of the Merck Innovation Cup took place this year between 11th June and 16th June in Frankfurt. This competition gathers selected top talents from all over the world for a tailored programme organised by Merck KGaA to develop an entrepreneurial idea into a competitive pitch. The Jury Day takes place at the Innovation Center within the Merck site in Darmstadt.
Elena joined the Medicinal Chemistry Team as an alumni coach this year, coming back after winning the Cup in 2021 with the Drug Discovery Technology Team and coaching the 1st Runner up Autoimmunity Team in 2022. The Medicinal Chemistry Team was made of 6 scientists: Oleg Borodin (University of Ulm), Margarida Espadinha (University of Antwerp), Eleanor Ivens (University of East Anglia), Beatrice Lansbergen (Max Planck Institute for Coal Research), Severin Lechner (Technical University of Munich), and Dusan Ruzic (University of Belgravia). Over the course of a week together, guided by Elena and the retiree coaches from Merck, they developed an idea around biology-templated dynamic covalent chemistry for implementing a fully automated AI-driven high throughput screen for hit discovery, which was awarded the 2nd Runner up prize (€ 3,000).
Congratulations to Elena and the team!
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Reporter
Edward Bartlett
Department of Chemistry
