Tate group members presented their research at the 28th EFMC-ISMC International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry in Rome.

Drs Efthymios Spyridon Gavriil, Thomas Burden, and PhD students Amrita Date, Xinyue Zhang and Lame Senatla presented their research to XXVII EFMC attendees, with Xinyue Zhang and Dr Thomas Burden receiving Chemistry Europe editor recognition for poster presentations.

The conference took place over five days in the centre of Rome this year, and featured a variety of guest academic speakers and industrial representatives. The conference was opened by the 2021 chemistry Nobel laureate Prof. David Macmillan delivering an inaugural lecture. The following days were filled with case study talks on medicinal chemistry from across the globe with many first disclosure sessions from the pharmaceutical companies.

Whilst at the conference the Tate group members presented their research in poster presentations with PhD student Xinyue Zhang’s poster on “Discovery of Covalent Ligands targeting a Cysteine Residue in VHL for Novel PROTAC Development” and Dr Thomas Burden’s poster on “Synthesis of Next Generation Inhibitors of NorA Efflux Pumps to Potentiate Antibiotics” receiving recognition by Chemistry Europe from the Editor-in-chief of ChemMedChem. 

In addition to presenting their work in poster presentations, Tate group member Dr Efthymios Spyridon Gavriil delivered a talk on his research around “Discovery of Hedgehog Acyltransferase (HHAT) Inhibitors for Treatment of Cancer”. This work explored the SAR development and optimisation of properties of small molecules that target the hedgehog signalling pathway. This pathway is important for the embryonic development but is also reactivated during initiation and progression of cancers.