Innovation Award of the GDCh Division of Medicinal Chemistry

The Innovation Award was presented to Dr. on March 15, 2022 on the occasion of the Online FiMC 2022. Steffen Pockes and Dr. Awarded to Oliver Thorn-Seshold.

Dr. Pockes: "in recognition of his excellent, original and pioneering research work. Dr. Pockes' scientific work deals with the development of novel active ingredients to combat neurodegenerative diseases. The focus is on innovative ligands for G protein-coupled receptors and selective caspase inhibitors . The scientific success of his innovative and independent research work is documented by publications in the highest-ranking journals in medicinal chemistry."

Dr. Thorn-Seshold: "in recognition of his outstanding, original and pioneering research work. Dr. Thorn-Seshold is developing structurally chemically novel, photoswitchable modulators of the cytoskeleton. This work ranges from basic research to application in vivo. New strategies are being developed with photoswitchable antimitotics and vascular-damaging agents for tumor therapy. The scientific success of his innovative and independent work is documented by publications in the highest-ranking international journals and by considerable acquisition of third-party funding."

The Innovation Award was awarded on the occasion of the Online FiMC 2021 to Prof. Dr. Pierre Koch and Ass.-Prof. Dr. Nina Schützenmeister awarded.

Prof. Dr. Koch: "In recognition of his excellent, original and pioneering research work. Dr. Koch developed selective kinase inhibitors that are able to penetrate the central nervous system. These kinase inhibitors represent an innovative approach to the therapy of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's dementia and multiple sclerosis. The scientific success of this innovative research work is documented by numerous publications in respected journals."

Prof. Dr. Schützenmeister: "in recognition of her outstanding, original and pioneering research work. Dr. Schützenmeister carried out innovative work on the synthesis of biologically active natural substances. She developed new and efficient synthesis methods and used them to obtain antibacterial and antiviral natural substances and natural substance analogues. Such will be novel analogues for improving biological activity are accessible. The scientific success of this innovative and extremely independent research work is documented by publications in respected journals."

The Innovation Award 2020 was awarded to PD Dr. Oliver Koch and Mr. PD Dr. Daniel Merk forgive.

PD Dr. Oliver Koch: " in recognition of his excellent, original and pioneering research work. Dr. Koch carried out groundbreaking work on the development and application of computer-aided methods for the rational molecular design of new biologically active substances. In particular, he dealt with targets for combating mycobacterial infections and for modulation epigenetic processes. The scientific success of this innovative and extremely independent research work is documented in numerous publications in respected journals."

PD Dr. Daniel Merk: " in recognition of his excellent, original and pioneering research work. Dr. Merk carried out innovative work on the modulation of nuclear receptors. This important class of proteins offers poorly characterized, potential new targets for drug development. Dr. Merk used for his previous research work a broad spectrum of methods, which also includes computer-aided methods. In his still young scientific career, he has already achieved an astonishing number of high-quality publications."

The 2019 Innovation Award was awarded at the annual conference “Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry” to Dr. Andreas Brunschweiger awarded "in recognition of his outstanding, original and pioneering research work. Dr. Andreas Brunschweiger has developed and synthesized innovative DNA-encoded substance libraries for numerous substance classes. These libraries enable the rapid and efficient identification of new lead structures in drug research."