06 July 2020

Fragment events in 2020 and 2021

Remember conferences?

Those things to which you  might travel halfway around the world to present and hear about the latest research, catch up with old friends, meet new ones, and participate in the global scientific enterprise?

Crammed poster sessions where social distancing was measured in centimeters or inches, not meters
or feet?

Breakfast buffets where you could grab coffee and pastries before joining an early round-table discussion?

Late-night discussions where lack of sleep and perhaps an excess of ethanol made you wonder, "huh, what if...?"

How many ideas have originated, and collaborations initiated, at conferences?

As one small example, Practical Fragments was conceived at a CHI meeting way back in 2008.

Among the many casualties of COVID-19 have been in-person conferences, as memorialized in the list of cancellations here.

But some meetings are still planned, with the hope that conditions will improve by the time the events are held. And others are moving online. Here is the current list of particular interest to readers.

2020
August 25-26: CHI’s Fifteenth Annual Fragment-Based Drug Discovery, the longest-running fragment event, will be held VIRTUALLY. This is part of the larger Drug Discovery Chemistry meeting, running August 25-28. You can read impressions of the 2019 meeting here, the 2018 meeting here, the 2017 meeting here, the 2016 meeting here; the 2015 meeting herehere, and here; the 2014 meeting here and here; the 2013 meeting here and here; the 2012 meeting here; the 2011 meeting here; and 2010 here.

September 16-18: CHI’s Eighteenth Annual Discovery on Target will also be VIRTUAL. As the name implies this event is more target-focused than chemistry-focused, but there is an entire section on FBDD. You can read impressions of the 2019 event here and the 2018 event here.

Update as of 7 July: Pacifichem postponed till 2021 - see below


2021
March 10-12, 2021:  Postponed from this year and not exclusively fragment-focused, the Eighth NovAliX Conference on Biophysics in Drug Discovery will have lots of relevant talks, and returns to Boston next year. You can read my impressions of the 2018 event here, the 2017 Strasbourg event here, and Teddy's impressions of the 2013 event herehere, and here.

March 29 - April 2: CHI’s Sixteenth Annual Fragment-Based Drug Discovery will (hopefully) be held live in San Diego. You can read impressions of the 2019 meeting here, the 2018 meeting here, the 2017 meeting here, the 2016 meeting here; the 2015 meeting herehere, and here; the 2014 meeting here and here; the 2013 meeting here and here; the 2012 meeting here; the 2011 meeting here; and 2010 here.

December 16-21: The second Pacifichem Symposium devoted to fragments has been rescheduled and will (hopefully!) take place in Honolulu. Nearly 40 speakers and poster presenters submitted abstracts, and a new call for abstracts will go out in January 2021 so there could be even more. Pacifichem conferences are only held every 5 years and are designed to bring together scientists from Pacific Rim countries including Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, and the US. Here are my impressions of the 2015 event.

Know of anything else? Add it to the comments or let us know.

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