Scientist Recognised for Medicinal Chemistry Research

Dr Alessio Ciulli, of the University of Dundee, has been recognised as one of Europe’s rising stars of science with the award of the 2016 MedChemComm* Emerging Investigator Lectureship, given to a researcher who has made a significant contribution to medicinal chemistry research in the early part of their career.

Dr Ciulli was selected as this year’s recipient for his work tackling important biology with elegant chemistry, developing novel chemical tools to aid our understanding of BET bromodomain proteins and E3 ubiquitin ligases, providing pioneering examples of understanding protein-protein interactions as a basis for discovering novel therapeutics.

Dr Ciulli is based in the School of Life Sciences at the University and his work offers exciting possibilities for drug development for cancer and anti-inflammatory diseases.

“I feel truly honoured to have been selected to receive the MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship this year, and privileged to join such a distinguished list of former winners,” he said.

“It is a recognition of the excellent work of many students and postdocs in my group who have made key contributions to our discoveries over the past few years. I am excited to be given the opportunity to present some of our latest results at a conference later in the year.”    

This is the second major award for Dr Ciulli this year. He was named joint winner of the Capps Green Zomaya Memorial Award by the Royal Society of Chemistry in January. That award recognises outstanding work in medicinal or computational medicinal chemistry and is given to `an individual judged to have made an important contribution to the discovery or development of new medicines’, with nominations open to candidates up to the age of 40.

*MedChemComm is the official journal of the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry.