DMCCB Basel Symposium 2022 «Intrinsically Disordered Proteins as Drug Targets»

This one-day symposium was organized by the Swiss Chemical Society, Division Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology. The topic has been selected by our members among several proposals aiming at reinforcing the links between chemical biology, medicinal and agro chemistry, while being of importance in drug discovery and optimization programs.

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDP) have long be considered undruggable because of their inherent flexibility and therefore lack of stable binding pockets for small molecules. Many IPD are associated with diseases making them attractive targets for drug discovery. Novel strategies to address these targets are needed and understanding has increased over the recent years.

Illustrating the progress in the field of intrinsically disordered proteins will be of high interest to students in chemistry, pharmacy, biology, and to the medicinal chemistry and chemical biology community at large. The target audience was therefore composed of scientists from pharmaceutical and biotech industries, as well as colleagues from academia.

Dictated by the uncertainties of the Covid-19 pandemic, the meeting was being held online only.

The program wais composed of 6 invited speakers highlighting recent progress in the field.

A session with short oral communications covering also topics of Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology in a broader sense took place during the lunch break.

Confirmed Speakers:

• Dan Nomura (Berkeley, US)
• Ben Schuler (UZH)
• Hilal Lashuel (EPFL)
• Birgit Strodel (Jülich, D)
• Sarah Slavoff (Yale University, US)
• Virginia Burger (New Equilibrium Biosciences, Cambridge, US)