RCNS (MTA TTK)

The medicinal chemistry research group of the Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (RCNS) performs research on therapeutic targets related to central nervous system (CNS) diseases and different oncology indications. Our CNS research activity is focused to GPCRs and enzymatic targets we investigate within the National Brain Research Program in collaboration with Gedeon Richter plc. Oncology projects involve targeting protein kinases using both ATP-competitive, allosteric and covalent approaches. We integrate the design, synthesis and screening fragment libraries, computational drug design tools, structural studies and medicinal chemistry optimizations. The group has access to state-of-the-art equipment like isothermal titration calorimetry: MicroCal ITC (GE), high performance computing facilities, industry standard molecular modelling software (all relevant modules of Schrödinger suite), facilities to produce recombinant enzymes, and to perform the synthesis of new chemical entities.

Website link: Hungarian Academy of Science

Staff involved in this project: Prof. György M. Keserű

Prof. György M. Keserű obtained his Ph.D. at Budapest, Hungary and joined Sanofi-Aventis CHINOIN heading a chemistry research lab. He moved to Gedeon Richter in 1999 as the Head of Computer-aided Drug Discovery. He earned D.Sc. from the Hungarian Academy of Science in 2003 and he was invited for a research professorship at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Since 2007 he was appointed as the Head of Discovery Chemistry at Gedeon Richter. He contributed to the discovery of the antipsychotic VRAYLAR™ (RGH-188, cariprazine) that received FDA approval in 2015. From January 2013 he serves as the general director of the Research Center for Natural Sciences at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His research interests include medicinal chemistry, drug design, and in silico ADME. He has published over 170 papers and more than 10 books and book chapters. In 2014 he received the Overton and Meyer Award with György G. Ferenczy from the European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry for their contribution to new strategies of medicinal chemistry optimizations.

 

 

Dr. György G. Ferenczy

Dr. György G. Ferenczy obtained his PhD in computational chemistry from the Eötvös University of Budapest. He post doc’ed at the Oxford University, UK and at the University of Nancy, France. He joined to Gedeon Richter as a computational chemist and was appointed to a group-leader in 1996. He moved to Sanofi Budapest in 1999 prior to joining to the Strasbourg Drug Design Group of Sanofi as a group leader. From 2012 he is a senior research fellow at the Semmelweis University. He is currently a scientific advisor at the Research Centre for Natural Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His research interest includes the development and application of computational tools for extended biochemical systems, and in particular studying molecular interactions relevant for drug discovery. He is the author and co-author of over 60 scientific papers and book chapters that received over 1500 independent citations.