News
This past September, we celebrated a groundbreaking moment: the graduation of the first cohort from the International Master in Sustainable Drug Discovery! These outstanding students from across the globe have successfully completed their journey, mastering sustainable and innovative approaches to shape the future of pharmaceuticals. Through two years of rigorous learning, collaboration, and a shared […]
If you’re from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Montenegro and have a passion for advancing sustainable drug discovery, this opportunity is for you! The S-DISCO Master Programme offers dedicated scholarships exclusively for students from these countries, in addition to the general scholarships available for EU and non-EU applicants. 👉 Learn more and apply here: www.sustainabledrugdiscovery.eu 🕒 […]
This month, we highlight the impressive research our students have undertaken for their master’s dissertations. Throughout their journey, students have delved into diverse challenges in the field of drug discovery, using sustainable practices to tackle urgent global issues. An overview of some topics can be found below: Thesis Nelson Ankamah Thesis Moses Hailume Thesis Duan […]
Research presented at the 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) in Cali emphasized an urgent call to address biodiversity challenges. "If we don’t take immediate action, these ecosystems are already on the verge of irreversible change," warns Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, global climate and energy lead at WWF. Take a look […]
November 3rd 2024 was the One Health day, reminding us of the connection between human, animal and environmental health. Have a look here for more information.
Merck & Co., Inc. is being recognized for developing a new “continuous process” for manufacturing its PD-1 therapy, KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab). Typically, these types of proteins are produced in large batches. Merck now uses a continuous process to produce pembrolizumab, in which the protein is filtered away from the cells continuously instead of performing a one-time […]
Our second-year master's student, Nelson Ankamah, was selected among the top 100 submissions to the Global Essay Competition organized by the St. Gallen Symposium, earning him the title of Leader of Tomorrow. In his essay, he addressed the challenge of Unmet Medical Needs and argued for the role of basic drug discovery efforts with a […]
Drug discovery is the birth of a novel medicine and should thus be part of the drug’s life cycle and early communication with all stakeholders. Read our paper: B. De Spiegeleer, B. Deprez, E. Hak, M. Markuszewski, E. Wynendaele, On the pivotal role of drug discovery in sustainable EU pharma reform, Drug Discovery Today (2024), doi:
We are proud to announce that S-DISCO was selected as one of the 2024-2025 recipients of the ACS-CES Award for Incorporating Sustainability into Chemistry Education. Congratulations to our teaching staff for this wonderful achievement!
Following the European artificial intelligence act, EMA and HMA have proposed a workplan from 2024 to 2028 to balance the risk-benefits of AI in drug development. The workplan addresses 4 critical AI dimensions: policies, tools, training and experiments. As part of pharmaceutical data intelligence, AI is rapidly and profoundly moving into each field of medicines […]
Nearly 500 validated applications for Erasmus mundus scholarships were received at the deadline of 1 December 2023, aiming to start the 2-year International Master of Science in Sustainable Drug Discovery in September 2024. The selection procedure has been started, and applicants will receive more information end of December 2023, so that final selection will be […]
SDISCO students visited the API-pharmaceutical production plant of J&J in Geel (8 December 2023). They experienced the environmental, climate change and socio-economic focal points, driving pharmaceutical production more sustainable. Thanks to the J&J organizers and speakers!
The COP28 virtual pavilion starts today! Participate in this global event by joining one of the many online events. Certainly a great opportunity for the SDISCO family!
A recent open access publication by the group of S-DISCO researcher Prof. Serge Van Calenbergh was recognized by Elsevier for its contribution to the UN SDGs. Congratulations to the authors!
Are you an intelligent student from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Montenegro, and interested in sustainable drug discovery? Then start your application NOW! We have dedicated EMJM scholarships for students from these countries. ❗ Application deadline: 1st December 2023 ❗
The application deadline is nearing... Check our website for more information about our application procedure and give it a try. Submit your application the latest on the 1st of December 2023 to apply for an EMJM scholarship.
For the course 'Sustainable Landscape of Pharmaceutical Discovery', the 1st master S-DISCO students visited the UHasselt Ecotron. It was a nice addition to the course content, to see how climate change is influencing the agroecosystem.
SDISCO consortium members compared different techniques for the chiral separation of lactam-based P2RX7-antagonists.
With the start of the academic year at Ghent University, also the new S-DISCO students started today with their first semester courses. After an intensive summer school last week, with some pleasant social moments, they are ready for this new adventure. We wish them all an enjoyable and interesting semester at UGent Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences!
Currently ongoing (also online): second WHO symposium on the future of health systems in a digital era. Generative artificial intelligence (AI), digital health, big data, One Health digitals technologies, … : sustainability of health systems by intelligent data use.
A new UN publication highlights the importance of sustainable wastewater (WW) treatment for a healthy planet. One of the main classes of emerging pollutants in the WW are pharmaceuticals. The reuse or environmental release of insufficiently treated WW increases the risk of pharmaceutical pollution, undermining human and ecosystem health. Advanced WW treatment techniques can only partially remove […]
❗️ APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN ❗️ Applications for the S-DISCO programme (starting September 2024) are now open! The application deadline for EMJM scholarship students is 1st of December 2023. Self-funded students can apply until 31st of January 2024, but early submissions are encouraged. Please check our website for more information about the programme and the application […]
After the second round of applications (deadline March 31 2023), we are happy to announce that the total number of applications has increased to 696. From these, 27 students received a letter of acceptance from the S-DISCO consortium; 22 of them were granted an EMJM scholarship. Applications for the next academic year (2024-2025) will be […]
Last month, our students organized the first Sustainable Drug Discovery (S-DISCO) Days in Gdańsk, Poland. This yearly international scientific conference aims to raise awareness and expand the knowledge on sustainability in drug discovery for students, scientists and experts from various institutions and industries. We would like to thank the students for the perfect organization, the […]
Today is Europe Day! On 9 May every year we celebrate peace and unity in Europe. How will you celebrate the occasion?
End of April, the European Commission has released its proposal for major change in the human pharmaceutical legislation, undoubtedly making the system more sustainable. One of the key changes is the importance of the environmental risk assessment (ERA), in line with the European Green Deal. The ERA rightfully now becomes a possible reason for not […]
During the first round of applications for the academic year of 2023-2024, 672 valid applications were received for our Master in Sustainable Drug Discovery (SDISCO) programme requesting an EMJM scholarship. These applications are now being thoroughly evaluated. Each applicant will receive their result before the end of this month if they are selected for the […]
In our recent publication green chemistry principles were applied to the preparation of an analytical reagent. The functionality and cost-efficiency were included to evaluate sustainability. A Derringer desirability function was used to obtain a sustainability score. Replacing acetonitrile by ethanol resulted in the most sustainable reagent. Other factors were of less influence on the total […]
With the introduction of the FDA modernization act 2.0, animal testing in drug development is no longer an absolute requirement in the US. Is this a step forward to more sustainable drug development?
In the first semester, the S-DISCO students had the pleasure to follow several guest lectures during the courses. In the course ‘Pharmaceuticals in the Environment’, prof. Adrian Covaci (University of Antwerp) talked about the wastewater-based epidemiology of psychoactive compounds, thereby combining multiple disciplines for this study. For the course ‘Sustainable Landscape of Pharmaceutical Discovery’, 3 […]
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