Heptares scientists to receive Malcolm Campbell Memorial Prize

27-Jan-2015 - United Kingdom

Heptares Therapeutics announced that the Malcolm Campbell Memorial Prize for 2015 has been awarded to Miles Congreve (Vice President of Chemistry), Fiona Marshall (Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder) and Malcolm Weir (Chief Executive Officer and co-founder) for the seminal contributions to GPCR drug discovery made by Heptares Therapeutics since the company was founded in 2007.

GPCRs (G protein-coupled receptors) form the most important family of drug targets in the pharmaceutical industry and are linked to a wide range of disease areas; they are the targets for approximately 40% of all existing drugs.

The Prize, awarded by the UK Royal Society of Chemistry’s Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Sector, is in recognition of work that has included building the StaR® technology platform, which enables precision drug design based on structural information for validated and challenging GPCRs, and the invention of a number of clinical candidates with potential to transform the treatment of a wide range of human diseases. Such candidates include the world’s first selective M1 agonist, which is in clinical studies for improving learning and memory in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia and other related diseases. Heptares is also advancing a non-stimulant medicine targeting the adenosine A2A receptor for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The winners are particularly commended on their outstanding publication record, and on their willingness to release data into the public domain.

https://www.bionity.com/en/news/151367/heptares-scientists-to-receive-malcolm-campbell-memorial-prize.html