UMN Medicinal Chemistry Flourishes at Frontiers 2026

Our faculty and students did well for themselves at the 2026 EFMC-ACSMEDI Medicinal Chemistry Frontiers meeting in Dublin, Ireland! Held yearly, the joint symposium is a top destination for Medicinal Chemistry researchers who are at the cutting-edge of research in their field. You can read more about the annual meeting here.

PhD candidate Kelsey Holdaway (Georg Lab) attended Frontiers via a travel grant through the University of Minnesota’s Masonic Cancer Center. Her abstract was selected for an oral presentation prior to the meeting, and she gave a fantastic talk entitled Covalent-Allosteric Inhibitors of Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 2.

Jerrett Holdaway (Georg Lab) was also able to attend the meeting, with his attendance being supported by a travel grant sponsored by ACSMEDI and EFMC. He was one of only two students in the US to receive this support. His poster presentation was entitled: Optimization of an Orally Bioavailable TSSK1 Prodrug Degrader for Nonhormonal Male Contraception.

We were thrilled to have Alexis Stoorza (Duerfeldt Labs) represent us as a member of the Student Organizing Committee for the event. In addition, she was able to present a poster: Total Synthesis of Picrasidine: A PPARalpha Agonist. Alexis had a fantastic time helping to run sessions and registration, and she sends her thanks to Conference Manager Nadia De Vrieze for countless hours of support to make sure everything ran smoothly.

Professor Gunda I. Georg represented the ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry as Chair. We were fortunate to have her give remarks at the event’s celebratory banquet. However, her real impact is her long and illustrious career as a leader not only in ACSMEDI, but in the field of Medicinal Chemistry at large. She enjoyed spending time with the Chair of the EFMC, Luc van Hijfte.

Professor Natalia Y. Tretyakova was at the event in her role as Editor-in-Chief of a new journal in the field: Therapeutics NOW from German publisher Thieme. You can read more about the journal here. Focusing on areas such as gene therapy, immunotherapy, drug discovery, and personalized medicine, the journal promises to be highly interdisciplinary and translational. (Take a look at the link above if you are interested in getting involved!)

Finally, we thank Professor Daniel A. Harki for his continued service as a member of the Organizing Committee for Frontiers. This is not Dr. Harki’s first (nor last) time helping to put the Frontiers meeting together, and we are grateful to have him steering the event and assisting with the nuts and bolts of running a complicated scientific meeting each year!

Thank you to all the faculty and students above for representing us at such an impactful and important meeting. Your contributions are much appreciated! Well done!