ESMEC 2025

SUNDAY, JUNE 29

15.00 – 18.30 Registration, Putting up of Posters

19.00.19:45 Opening Lecture
Russell THOMAS – Symeres (NL)
“21st Century drug discovery challenges (and maybe some solutions)”

20.00-22.00 Welcome Buffet

MONDAY, JUNE 30

09.00 – 09.20 Opening of ESMEC 2025
Giorgio CALCAGNINI – Rector of the University of Urbino Carlo Bo
Gabriele Costantino – Director of the European School of Medicinal Chemistry

EXPANDING THE SEARCH: IN SILICO MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY IN THE AGE OF BILLION-SCALE LIBRARIES
Co-chair: Sandro COSCONATI – University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli (I); Giovanni BOTTEGONI – University of Urbino Carlo Bo (I)

09.20 – 09.30 Introduction to the Session

09.30 – 10.15 Barbara ZDRAZIL – European Molecular Biology Laboratory – European Bioinformatics Institute (UK)
“Expanding the Scope of ChEMBL with New Data Annotations”

10.15 – 11.00 Andreas BENDER – University of Cambridge (UK)
“Artificial Intelligence in Drug Discovery – The Six Circles of Hell”

11.00 – 11.30 Coffee Break

11.30 – 12.15 Albert ANTOLIN – Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Barcelona (E)
“Towards identifying a chemical probe for every human protein leveraging ultra-large-scale screening and machine learning”

12.15 – 13.00 Emanuele CAROSATI – Università Degli Studi Di Trieste (I)
“Screening Ultra-large libraries: concepts, tools and success stories”

13.00 – 14.30 Lunch

14.30 – 15.00 General Introduction to the Workshop

15.00 – 17.00 Workshop: “Mining from the Largest Drug Catalog: Hit Expansion and Lead Discovery Utilizing Enamine REAL Space”
Yurii MOROZ – Enamine (UA)
Filomena PERRI and Alexander NEUMANN – BioSolveIT (D)

17.30 – 18.30 Poster Session

20.00 Dinner

21.00 Walking tour of the historic center of Urbino, UNESCO heritage site

TUESDAY, JULY 1

HIT IDENTIFICATION FROM (ULTRA)LARGE LIBRARIES: FROM BIOCHEMICAL TO IN VIVO ASSAYS
Co-chair: Laura CARZANIGA – Chiesi (I); Enza LACIVITA – University of Bari Aldo Moro (I)

09:15-10:00 Brinton SEASHORE-LUDLOW – Karolinska Institute (SE) EU OPENSCREEN ERIC
“Introduction to high-throughput screenings with focus on biochemical assays”

10:00-10:45 Riccardo MIGGIANO – Università del Piemonte Orientale (I)
“Integrating biophysical methods for analyzing protein-ligand interactions: combining steady-state analysis with binding kinetics”
Barbara PIOSELLI – Chiesi (I)
“Drug-target interactions by mass spectrometry”

10:45-11:15 Coffee Break

11:15-12:00  Valeria COLICCHIA – IRBM (I)
“Advancing Drug Discovery: from assay development to cell-based high-throughput screening”

12:00-12:45 Tanya WHITFIELD – University of Sheffield (UK)
“Use of the zebrafish embryo as a screening platform for drug discovery”

12.45 – 14.30 Lunch

14.30 – 17.00 Workshop: “HTS Data Surfing: Tools, Challenges, and Structure Analysis”
Brinton SEASHORE-LUDLOW – Karolinska Institute (SE) EU OPENSCREEN ERIC

17.00 – 18.00 Poster Session

19.45 Dinner

21.00 Guided tour of the Ducal Palace

WEDNESDAY, JULY 2

INNOVATIVE SYNTHETIC APPROACHES TO EXPLORE THE CHEMICAL SPACE
Co-chair: Antimo GIOIELLO – University of Perugia (I); Marco Lucio LOLLI – University of Torino (I)

09:15 – 10:00 Jonas BOSTRÖM – Treeline Biosciences (US)
“From Synthesis to Drug Design: Trends & Real-World Challenges”

10:00 – 10:45 Renzo LUISI – University of Bari (I)
“Potential of Skeletal Editing in Medicinal Chemistry”

10:45-11:15 Coffee Break

11:15 – 12:00 Jeffrey W. BODE – ETH Zurich (CH)
“Chemical menu for the on-demand synthesis of drug-like molecules”

12:00 – 12:45 Maria Teresa GIUSTINIANO – University of Naples Federico II (I)
“Multicomponent Reactions: Creativity and Innovation in Compound Library Synthesis”

12.45 – 14.30 Lunch

14.30 – 17.00 Workshop: “Landing chemical space travellers to the bench: how to select the final hit series and accelerate the following hit to lead process”
Russel THOMAS – Symeres (NL)

17.00 – 17.30 Fifth Edition of the ESMEC Alumni Award (Open Webinar)

17.30 – 18.30 Assemblea della sezione Giovani della Divisione di Chimica Farmaceutica della SCI

20.30 Social Dinner

THURSDAY, JULY 3
Chairperson: Beatriz DE PASCUAL-TERESA, University CEU San Pablo, Madrid (E)

09.00 – 10.00 Tiziano BANDIERA – Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa (I)
“Market watch: new drug approval in 2024 and synthetic strategies”

10.00 – 10.30 Coffee Break

10.30 – 10.45 Michele MARI – University of Urbino Carlo Bo (I)
“EFMC-YSN: join the young scientists network!”

10.45 – 12.45 Chairperson: Stephanie FEDERICO – University of Trieste (I)
Selected oral lectures by participants
1) BOSCHI Elia, ETH-Zürich
2) KÖLLEN Martin, Technical University of Munich
3) LEMBO Vittorio, University of Urbino
4) PACCOIA Federico, University of Perugia
5) PRIMAVERA Erika, University of Perugia
6) TARDIOLO Nicola, University of Siena

12.45 – 13.15 Awards of selected posters
Concluding remarks
Gabriele Costantino – Director of the European School of Medicinal Chemistry
Stefano Alcaro – President of the Medicinal Chemistry Division of the Italian Chemical Society

13.15 Lunch and leaving