Report on 3rd ECCLS meeting at Frankfurt/Germany (J. Engels)

The 3rd European Conference on Chemistry for Life Sciences under  the umbrella of EuCheMS took place in Frankfurt from 2-5 September 2009. It was organized by the Division Biochemistry (Chairman A. Skerra) of the German Chemical Society (GDCh). The venue was the Westend Campus of the Goethe University in the Casino of the former "IG-Farben Haus", an impressive Neoclassic Style building from 1930 for the German Chemical Industry. 

Around 280 participants from 25 countries attended the conference, covering 10 topics ranging from Chemical Biology over Bioinorganic Chemistry to Structural Biology. The format included 5 plenary, 48 invited lectures, and 138 posters of which 18 were selected for short presentations.

Putting the title "Chemistry for Life Sciences" into action, the huge potential of chemistry solving our future needs was discussed. A main focus was on health but also aspects of energy and food were duly treated for their rising importance. In the 5 plenary lectures the stage was set for Chemical Biology by H. Waldmann from MPI Dortmund, who opened the session by presenting a software that helps to define the chemical space for small organic molecules with biological and/or medical activity......