Speakers
Prof. Dr. Danijel Kikelj
Danijel Kikelj is Professor Emeritus of medicinal chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He graduated in pharmacy from the University of Ljubljana in 1978, where he also earned a master of science degree in 1983. He obtained his doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) in heterocyclic pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, in 1988 under the mentorship of Professor Richard Neidlein.
From 1991 to 1992, he served as a C-3 professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Heidelberg. From 2000 until his retirement in 2022, he was a full professor of medicinal chemistry and head of the research programme in Medicinal Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Ljubljana. The main areas of his research have been medicinal chemistry, peptidomimetics, muramyl dipeptide-based immunomodulatory compounds, structure-based design of dual antithrombotic compounds, inhibitors of Mur enzymes involved in peptidoglycan biosynthesis, pharmaceutical leads based on marine bioactive compounds, and, most recently, the discovery of inhibitors of bacterial topoisomerases with activity against Gram-negative bacteria.
He was one of the founders of the Paul Ehrlich MedChem Euro-PhD Network, organized the 2nd Network meeting at the University of Ljubljana in 2012, and served as the Network’s coordinator from 2012 to 2015.
Dr. Ed J. Griffen
Ed J. Griffen earned his PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from Imperial College London, followed by postdoctoral research at the University of Waterloo, Canada. He subsequently joined AstraZeneca as a medicinal chemist, where he progressed to the role of Principal Scientist. In 2012, he co-founded MedChemica Ltd. He is an inventor on 17 patents and has authored more than 30 scientific articles as well as a textbook. He has contributed to four drug discovery projects that have progressed to clinical development, including capivasertib. In March 2020, he joined the COVID Moonshot initiative as Design Team Leader, contributing to the development of two SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors that advanced to pre-clinical development.
Since 2022, he has been Head of Lead Optimisation at the ASAP Pandemic Preparedness U19 AViDD Centre, where he is currently working on treatments for flaviviral infections, including dengue and Zika viruses. He is also a co-Principal Investigator in the OpenBind Consortium, which aims to build large-scale datasets for the prediction of binding affinity.
Prof. Ana Martinez
Ana Martinez, Research Professor at CIB-CSIC, is a leading figure in medicinal chemistry with over 35 years of experience in translational drug design. Her career is defined by an exceptional ability to bridge the gap between fundamental research and clinical application, primarily focusing on neurodegenerative and infectious diseases. Since 2010, she has dedicated her research to drug discovery for ALS, successfully advancing protein kinase inhibitors to the clinical stage and founding the spin-off MOLEFY Pharma to support their development.
Her prolific scientific output includes more than 350 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals, 40 patent families, and half a dozen edited books, accumulating over 12,000 citations. These contributions have earned prestigious achievements, including awards from the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (OEPM), the Madrid Regional Government, and the Royal Academy of Pharmacy (RANF). In 2022, she was recognized with the National Research Award “Juan de la Cierva” in Technology Transfer and the Margarita Salas Medal for excellence in scientific supervision.
More speakers will be announced soon!