In 2009, EFMC launched a series of short courses aimed to favour cultural and scientific growth of the medicinal chemistry community and organised with affordable fees for participation.

This intensive course is intended for scientists working in the field, and the presentations will be given by senior scientists from industry and academia. The number of participants will be limited to 35, to favour in depth discussion. Should the number of applications exceed the maximum, preference will be given to applicants from EFMC adhering countries and employees of EFMC corporate members. Upon special request to the organisers, only based on financial conditions and supported by an argued recommendation of the head of the department of the applicant, a limited number of applicants from academia (maximum 3) may be admitted at a reduced fee.

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For centuries mankind has focused on developing static materials that can perform specific and increasingly more complex tasks for longer and longer timespans. However, the next level of soft matter materials are required to interact with their environment in a responsive fashion, able to adapt to changing environmental conditions as well as being able to self-mend. Ultimately, materials are desired that can also not only react to exterior changes but actively fulfill pre-programmed functions. Thus, during the last decade, significant research focus was placed on the design of macromolecular materials that show dynamic and/or responsive behavior as well as – recently emerging – programmable characteristics.

In that context, polymer scientists and chemical companies have recently dedicated significant efforts into fundamental research and valorization of dynamic/responsive materials such as vitrimers, self-healing materials, supramolecular polymers, (multi-)responsive as well as shape-memory polymers.

These advances would not have been possible without the dedicated work of generations of doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers, who are the research backbone of our community. It is for this reason that we place the "on-the-bench" researchers into the spotlight of our conference by allocating them all available contributions. The MACROmolecular meeting, organised by a BElgian-GErman university (MacroBeGe) – held at the beautiful conference site of Houffalize in Belgium – provides ample opportunity for graduate students and post-doctoral researchers to showcase their work in oral as well as poster presentations, flanked by a number of keynote lectures.

After the two successful previous editions, we are convinced that the conference will pose again as a platform to closely connect European macromolecular communities and stimulate research collaborations from bench-to-bench for the benefit of the involved groups.

Christopher Barner-Kowollik (KIT)
Guillaume Delaittre (KIT)
Filip Du Prez (Ghent University)

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For the third time, NovAliX is organising its Biophysics in Drug Discovery Conference. This new edition will cover current hot topics including cryo-EM and introduce new features.

Because of the ever growing success of the two first editions, we will change the venue and relocate the event to the newly renovated Strasbourg Convention Centre.

The use of biophysical methods in drug discovery is rapidly increasing and the field is in constant evolution. Many pharmaceutical companies have set up in-house biophysical platforms to speed up the target-to-candidate process and improve the quality of small-molecule therapeutics through a better understanding of their interactions with their targets. Academic labs involved in early-stage drug discovery also heavily rely on biophysical techniques.

The third edition of the conference intends again to bring together biophysicists and medicinal chemists, the synergy between their disciplines being key to deliver better drugs on a shorter timeline.

This year, the conference will include the following sessions :

• Biophysics for Biotherapeutics Discovery / Selection / Characterisation / Optimisation
• Biophysics for Challenging Targets (Membrane Proteins, Multi-protein or Dynamic Complexes, Intrinsically Disordered Proteins...)
• Cellular Biophysics : Translation from Biochemical to Biological Systems
• Emerging Technologies (XFELs, Single-molecule Techniques, FTIR, MALDI-imaging MS...)
• Computational Biophysics
• Cryo-EM (Special Focus of the conference)

and we are pleased to announce that Sandra Cowan-Jacob (Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Basel) will deliver the Keynote Lecture.

This time, the Scientific Programme will be completed by a Workshop on cryo-EM, Exhibitor short presentations and a Poster Session.

The Social Programme will allow participants to (re)discover Strasbourg, a city of culture, home of the European Parliament and a UNESCO landmark.

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