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John A. Montgomery Award – 2010

Prof. Erik De Clercq

It is a pleasure to announce that the recipient of the Montgomery Award is Professor Erik De Clercq

of the Rega Institute in Leuven, Belgium. Erik is well known to many of us based upon his many

collaborative research projects. He also hosted two International Round Tables, in 1994 and 2002.

He was a collaborator and friend of John Montgomery for many years, and his approach to antiviral

drug development clearly embodies the spirit and approach of Dr. Montgomery.

Erik grew up in a small Flemish city in Belgium and went to Leuven, where he obtained both his M. D.

degree and his Ph. D. His Ph. D. work was entitled “Mechanism of the antiviral activity of synthetic

polyanions, and his advisor was Prof. Pierre de Somer, who at the time both Director of the Rega

Institute for Medical Research and President of the University. In the late 60’s Erik spent two years

with Prof. T. C. Merigan at Stanford University, after which he returned to Leuven to become first a

Research Associate, then Docent, Professor, and by 1977 full Professor at the Medical School of the

University of Leuven. He has been a department chair several times, and he was for some years the

Chair of the Directory Board of the Rega Institute of Leuven University.

Erik has been a visiting professor at a number of locations around the world, and he has given lectures

on antiviral chemotherapy in many hundreds of places. He has been awarded honorary degrees at the

University of Ghent, the Czech Academy of Sciences, and the University of Ferrara in Italy. He has

received numerous awards including the Otto Krayer award for Pharmacology in 2001, the Hamao

Umezawa Memorial Award from the International Society of Chemotherapy, the Blaise Pascal Medal for

Science and Technology of the European Academy of Sciences. Indicative of Erik’s commitment to

collaborative antiviral chemotherapy, he along with his colleagues and collaborators Drs. Balzarini, Holy,

Camarasa, McGuigan, Karlsson and Perno were awarded the Rene Descartes Prize, the highest award

bestowed by the European Union, for Scientific and Technological Excellence in European Collaborative

Research. In 2005 Erik was the recipient of the Elion Award of the International Society for Antiviral

Research, and he also is one of the few recipients of the ISAR Award of Excellence for making truly

outstanding contributions to the field of antiviral research.

Erik’s research interests span the range of antiviral chemotherapy, and are well known to all of us.

Together with Tony Holy, a previous Montgomery Award winner, Erik is responsible for the discovery of

adefovir, cidofovir and tenofovir, three drugs currently marked by Gilead Sciences, Inc. As a result of

Erik’s many collaborations and the research efforts in his laboratory, Erik has well over 2000 publications.

His accomplishments made him an obvious choice to receive the Montgomery Award.

 

Jean-Louis Imbach–Leroy Townsend Award 2010

Prof. Robert Vince

It is a pleasure to announce that the recipient of the Imbach-Townsend Award for 2010 is

Professor Robert Vince, of the University of Minnesota, USA. Bob has been a tremendous

advocate for medicinal chemistry and drug discovery over the years. He hosted an International

Roundtable in 2004. The magnitude of the outstanding accomplishments by Dr. Vince, exemplify

the spirit and dedication shown by Professors Imbach and Townsend during their esteemed careers.

Bob’s career began in research with his Ph. D. work on acyclic nucleosides as enzyme inhibitors,

with Dr. Howard J. Schaeffer. A concept that B. R. Baker espoused at the time, and that Dr. Schaeffer

was pursuing at SUNY Buffalo. This research was a clear precursor to the discovery of Acyclovir by

Schaffer at Burroughs Wellcome, still today the leading drug for the treatment of herpes virus infections.

Bob designed cyclaradine, the carbocyclic analog of ara-A, a natural and synthetic compound with

antiviral activity, which was licensed and pursued as a potential antiviral agent. It was during this time that

Bob set up a very productive collaboration with Dr. William M. Shannon, at Southern Research Institute.

This collaboration, with regard to antiviral evaluations of new compounds from his laboratory, continued

for many years, and transitioned into the carbovir series of compounds.

The culmination of his research in the area of carbocyclic nucleoside is certainly the discovery and

development of carbovir and the licensing of that technology to Glaxo. Ultimately, Abacavir (Ziagen©),

which serves as a prodrug form of carbovir triphosphate, was approved for the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

This drug, marketed by GlaxoSmithKline, has played an important role in the fight against HIV/AIDS

over the last two decades.

Indicative of Bob’s commitment to science, he founded and dedicated his personal efforts to the

establishment of The Center for Drug Design at The University of Minnesota, through royalties generated

by his successful research, with a vision toward the advancement of medicinal chemistry and human health.

jobs offered

1. Post-doc : Synthesis of siRNA prodrugs at the University of Montpellier (France)[details]

2. Research Fellow - Chemist and/or Biochemist at Queen's University Belfast (Northern Ireland)[details]

3. 4 - 5 year Research Fellow position in DNA synthesis at University of Birmingham (United Kingdom)[details]

   If you want your job offering to be posted here, send your information to webmaster@is3na.org.

    

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