July 2nd - 4th, 2014
Rouen’s Law Faculty
Rouen, Normandy, France

The “Golden Jubilee” of the “Rencontres Internationales de Chimie Thérapeutique” (RICT) will focus on “Interfacing Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery”. Chemical Biology can be defined as the use of chemical tools to unravel biological processes. The chemical approach to Biology may not only contribute a quantitative framework for the description (and prediction!) of complex biological events, but also tools for the generation of probes and binding molecules. Indeed, a part of the Congress will focus on experimental and theoretical approaches for the study of molecular interactions, exploring molecular space for the isolation of protein ligands and for the development of new drugs.

Most pharmaceutical agents on the market are either small organic molecules (typically smaller than 600 Daltons) or therapeutic proteins (typically larger than 20’000 Daltons). There is, however, a growing scientific and applicative interest in molecules of intermediate size (i.e., 1000 to 3000 Daltons). In this context, peptides and peptide derivatives offer unique opportunities to “drug” targets, which may be elusive for other classes of pharmaceutical agents. Very large combinatorial libraries of peptides can be constructed and screened, using biological or biochemical methods (e.g., phage display, mRNA display). Chemical ingenuity and pharmaceutical vision are needed, in order to convert initial hits into pharmaceutical products. Leading scientists in the field will guide us through some of the most exciting developments in the field.

Iris Biotech GmbH will be present at the RICT 2014 and we are looking forward to meet you at our booth.