PharmaCampus
Institut für Pharmazeutische und Medizinische Chemie
Dissertation award for Dr. Janosch Menke
At this year's Summa cum Laude ceremony at the University of Münster, Dr. Janosch Menke was awarded the Dissertation Award of the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy for his outstanding dissertation. The thesis entitled "Improving Ligand-based Virtual Screening by Utilizing Neural Networks to Generate Domain-specific Molecular Representations" was written in the working group of Prof. Dr. Koch (https://www.uni-muenster.de/Chemie.pz/forschen/ag/koch/index.html) at the Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry.
Dr. Menke worked on the application of artificial intelligence methods within computer-based drug research. To this end, he has used neural networks to develop a new molecular representation that allows faster identification of bioactive molecules.
The German Research Foundation has approved the continuation of the Chembion Research Training Group at the University of Münster. The program for research on ion channels will receive around 4.5 million euros.
The German Research Foundation (DFG) will fund the Research Training Group „Chemical Biology of Ion Channels (Chembion), located at the University of Münster, for a further 4.5 years period. The participating doctoral researchers are investigating small organic molecules, which are able to specifically control the opening state of so-called ion channels. Ion channels are proteins forming pores in cell membranes allowing charged particles to pass through the cell membrane. For example, this process plays an important role in the transmission of stimuli in nerve cells or in the release of insulin. The English-language doctoral program "Chemical biology of ion channels (Chembion)" will run in the second funding period from 1 April 2024 to 30 September 2028 and is funded by the DFG with around 4.5 million euros.
13 scientists from the Departments of Chemistry/Pharmacy and Medicine support the Research Training Group at the University of Münster. Prof. Dr. Bernard Wünsch from the Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry is the spokesperson for the program and explains the background to the research interest: "We are combining molecular expertise from pharmacy with cell physiological expertise from medicine in order to learn more about ion channels as important chemical control instruments in cells, tissues and organs. The targeted opening and closing of ion channels could lead to a wide range of applications, for example in cancer therapy or in the treatment of neuronal diseases."
The interdisciplinary collaboration between Pharmacy/Chemistry and Medicine is also reflected in the qualification program, emphasizes the spokesperson: "All doctoral students are supervised by two mentors from both faculties. The element of "lab rotation", i.e. switching between the labs, allows the doctoral researchers to learn new working methods." The independent organization of meetings and conferences also strengthens the young researchers' initiative and independence. A six-month stay abroad enables the doctoral researchers in the Research Training Group to collaborate with international well-known colleagues.
Structured doctorate at the University of Münster
Research Training Groups are university institutions for the promotion of young academics. They are funded by the DFG for a maximum of nine years. The focus is on the qualification of doctoral researchers within the framework of a thematically focused research program and a structured qualification program. Currently, the University of Münster hosts three DFG-funded Research Training Groups (RTGs).
Links:
Press release no. 45 of the DFG from 08.11.2023:
https://www.dfg.de/service/presse/pressemitteilungen/2023/pressemitteilung_nr_45/index.html
At the DPhG Annual Meeting 2023 in Tübingen, Stefan Groß (third from left in the photo), a doctoral student in Prof. Wünsch's working group at the Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, received a poster award from Dovepress. His poster is entitled "A Chimeric Subtype-Selective Fluorescent Probe for GluN2A-containing NMDA Receptors".
On the occasion of the DPhG Annual Meeting 2023 in Tübingen, Alexander Gast (far right in the photo), PhD student in the research group of Prof. Jose at the Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, has received a poster award from Taylor & Francis. His poster, titled "Molecular Characterization of variants of CK2α found in Okur-Chung Neurodevelopmental Syndrome," presents preliminary research on clinically relevant mutations of the protein kinase CK2 discovered in neuronal developmental disorders in children. The work was supported by the CSNK2A1 Foundation.
Dr. Tanja Gangnus receives the Walter-Schunack Prize 2023 of the DPhG
Dr. Tanja Gangnus (working group Prof. Dr. Burckhardt, Individualized Pharmacotherapy) was awarded the Walter Schunack Prize at this year's annual meeting of the German Pharmaceutical Society in Tübingen for the outstanding achievements in clinical pharmacy associated with her dissertation ("Reliable mass spectrometric techniques for new insights into the kallikrein-kinin system - modern bioanalytical peptide quantitation of an endogenous cascade"). The Walter Schunack Prize is awarded alternately for the fields of medicinal chemistry and clinical pharmacy. Madiha Malik from the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel was honored as the second Walter Schunack Prize winner.
Following the DPhG meeting, Dr. Tanja Gangnus presented the latest research results at the Munich Metabolomics Meeting 2023 in front of more than 200 colleagues (lecture: "Metabolomics-based biomarker discovery and clinical validation for non-invasive diagnosis of bladder cancer").
https://www.uni-muenster.de/Chemie.pz/forschen/ag/burckhardt/index.html
Dear students,
please take note of the new information regarding the preliminary course in mathematics.
On the occasion of the annual meeting of the "Computers in Chemistry" subdivision (www.gdch.de/cic) of the German Chemical Society (GDCh), Dr. Janosch Menke received the CIC Award for Computational Chemistry for his outstanding dissertation. The thesis entitled "Improving Ligand-based Virtual Screening by Utilizing Neural Networks to Generate Domain-specific Molecular Representations" was written in the research group of Prof. Dr. Koch (www.agkoch.de) at the Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry. Dr. Menke has been working on the application of artificial intelligence methods within computational drug discovery. For this purpose, he has used neuronal networks to develop a new molecular representation that allows faster identification of bioactive molecules.
Lecture and poster award for Joana Massa
On the occasion of the 35th Molecular Modeling Workshop in Erlangen , Ms. Joana Massa from the research group of Prof. Koch at the Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, has received a poster and a presentation award. Ms.
Massa is a member of the ChemBion graduate program.
She received the 3rd winner lecture award for a presentation on the research results of her Master's thesis entitled "Metadynamics Simulations of FPR2: Using an Enhanced Sampling Method to Elucidate The Mode of Action of a Diverse Set of Ligands". She received the poster award for her dissertation work entitled "KCa3.1 channel: Computational analysis of three known toxin inhibitors towards new extracellular inhibitors".
Lecture Award for Ricardo Köchel
On the occasion of the 28th Annual Meeting of the Working Group Radiochemistry/Radiopharmacy (AGRR) Ricardo Köchel from the group of Prof. Wünsch at the Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry in cooperation with the University Hospital Münster and the European Institute for Molecular Imaging (EIMI) has received the "Prize for the Best Lecture (Young Scientist)" with the title "Development and Preclinical Evaluation of a (Radio)Fluorinated FAP (Fibroblast Activation Protein) Inhibitor as 18F-PET Tracer".
Magdalena Wojciechowski receives the "Best Presentation by a PhD Student" award
On the occasion of the GP2A Annual Conference 2022 in Dublin, Magdalena Wojciechowski, PhD student in the group of Prof. Jose at the Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry and member of the Research Training Group Chembion, received the award "Best Presentation by a PhD Student". The title of her presentation was "Mutational analysis of the surface displayed HCN4-C-linker-CNBD: a flow cytometry based ligand binding approach" and deals with the use of autodisplay to study the influence of different amino acids within the HCN4- cyclic nucleotide binding domain (CNBD) on the binding of 8-fluo-cAMP.