Introduction

The symposium was aimed at researchers in industry and academia including graduate students and allowed participants plenty of opportunity to meet and network with potential collaborators. 

Medicinal chemistry lies at the very heart of the drug discovery process and the symposium featured expert speakers from both the pharmaceutical/biotech industry and leading academic research institutes.

The scientific programme included novel approaches to the treatment of inflammation, cancer, Alzheimer's disease and tropical diseases, and the application techniques such as diversity-orientated synthesis and natural-product derived synthetic biology.

Speakers

• Dr Dave Tapolczay, CEO Medical Research Council Technology, UK
• Dr Brian Dymock, Head of Chemistry, SBIO, Singapore
• Dr Ming Zhang, Senior VP Biotieca, UK 
• Dr Thomas Keller, Head of Chemistry, NITD, Singapore
• Professor Ian Gilbert, Drug Discovery Unit, University of Dundee, UK
• Dr Mahmood Ahmed, Team leader, GSK, Singapore
• Dr Martin Drysdale, Deputy Research Director, Vernalis, UK
• Dr Charlie Johannes, Director of Chemistry, Forma Therapeutics, Singapore      

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank GlaxoSmithKline and A*Star Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences for helping to organise this symposium.

Also we would like to thank the British High Commission in Singapore and the Singapore National Institute of Chemistry for their support in making this event possible.