Anthe Janssen wins the YMCS Public's Choice Prize
Anthe Janssen, a PhD student in the Molecular Physiology research group of Prof. Mario van der Stelt, has been awarded the Public's Choice Prize for Best Oral Presentation during the Young Medicinal Chemist Symposium '18 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
As the Dutch representative of the Medicinal Chemistry division of the KNCV, Anthe presented his work on "Synthesis and biological evaluation of BIA 10-2474: an irreversible and aspecific FAAH inhibitor", which details how the experimental drug BIA 10-2474, an FAAH inhibitor, had fatal side effects in a clinical trial in France.
Janssen, together with Annelot van Esbroeck and other colleagues, investigated the interaction profile of the drug. They discovered that BIA 10-2474 is not selective at high doses and deactivates multiple proteins, thereby disrupting the lipid metabolism of human nerve cells. Their findings have been published in Science.
About the EMFC Young Medicinal Chemist Symposium
The EMFC Young Medicinal Chemist Symposium is an initiative of the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC), with the aim of creating a network of young European investigators in Medicinal Chemistry, and to stimulate them to share their scientific work with peers and inspiring leaders in the field.
The recently held EMFC-YMCS '18 in Ljubljana, Slovenia was the 5th edition of the symposium.