News
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 […]
The ubiquitous presence of pharmaceuticals in the environment contributes to biodiversity threats. Their presence and bioactivity in plants, invertebrates, (soil)microorganisms, fish and other vertebrates may influence the genetic, species and ecosystem diversity. Novel and global approaches are urgently needed to cope with the historical pollution and minimize future contaminations. UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15), 7 […]
The S-DISCO programme challenges students beyond just lectures. In the spirit of learning by doing, students explore how plants and animals react to environmental exposure to pharmaceuticals during practical exercises. Sounds interesting? Apply for the programme today!
We need to apply a One Health approach to cope with antimicrobial resistance: all sectors must actively be involved in strengthening preventive measures. This includes development and access to safe vaccines, rational use of antimicrobials, sound antimicrobials waste management and discovery of novel targets to develop safer medicines. World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) is celebrated […]
During the 18th EPSA Autumn Assembly in Athens, we had the opportunity to present the S-DISCO program to the European Pharmaceutical students attending the congress. During an interactive session on sustainability in drug discovery, DruQuaR scientist Kevin Van der borght discussed with the students how to implement sustainability in the earliest phases of the drug […]
Today, the S-DISCO students visited the Ecotron of UHasselt, for the course ´Sustainable Landscape of Drug Discovery'. There, the effects of future climate on agroecosystems are investigated and new mitigation strategies explored. Thank you prof. Francois Rineau for this very interesting visit!
As a consequence of the FDA Reauthorization Act of 2017, a draft guidance about competitive generic therapy (CGT) is published with the aim to incentivize generic competition in USA. The designation of medicine as CGT, the request for designation, the expedited review and the 180 days exclusivity period are explained in this draft guideline (rev.1). […]
EMA and the Heads of Medicines Agencies (HMA) have recently issued a joint statement confirming that biosimilar medicines approved in the European Union (EU) are interchangeable with their reference medicine or with an equivalent biosimilar. Interchangeability of biosimilars without additional clinical trials required will improve the global accessibility of biological medicines.
On Monday, September 19th, the very first group of S-DISCO students started their journey of learning and sharing knowledge with the summer school at GhentUniversity. The summer school is packed with introductory sessions to prepare them for the official start of lectures. Throughout the week, the students had the opportunity to get to know the […]
- 1
- 2
