Members of the RSC’s Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Sector (BMCS), including BioAscent’s Chief Scientific Advisor Dr Phil Jones, recently contributed a guest editorial to ChemMedChem. The paper gives an overview of the various activities of the BMCS and the initiatives it runs to promote chemistry learning and networking. Here, we speak to Phil about his experience as a member of this important interest group.

How long have you been a member and why did you decide to get involved with the BMCS?

I’ve been a member of the RSC for a long time, since I was an undergraduate at university, and joined the BMCS in 2001. I was looking to meet like-minded people from other companies and build my network, joining the BMCS was a great way of doing that. In those days a lot of the research done in Big Pharma was completely internal and I was looking for more ways of meeting other chemists working in the same area. I’d always liked the work of the BMCS committee, organising great conferences, so it seemed like a good way to get involved and develop a broad network with others working in medicinal chemistry.

What types of events have you helped organise?

I chaired the group for around 8 years, so I’ve been involved in most initiatives either directly on organising committees or in an oversight role. I was on the organising committee for the Cambridge Med Chem meeting for 10 years, serving in a variety of roles (chair, secretary, treasurer). I was also on the organising committees for the first two AI in chemistry conferences which began in 2018.

Through the BMCS I became involved with the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC). This proved to be a great way to network across the whole continent and meet medicinal chemists from across Europe. As a result, I chaired the organising committee for the EFMC-ISMC meeting when it was held in Manchester in 2016. This was the biggest meeting I’ve been involved in, a flagship event with about 1000 delegates. I’m originally from Manchester so it was nice to take this event to my hometown!

Over the past 20 years there have been over 200 meetings organised by the BMCS group, all run by volunteers doing this in addition to their day job, which is quite an achievement.

Is there one event you’ve been involved in which stands out as your favourite?

I guess the biggest one for me was the Manchester ISMC meeting in 2016. It was attended by a lot of people, and we introduced one or two new aspects to the meeting and felt we brought some innovation to the event.

For example, we introduced an evening session open to the public where we showcased how medicinal chemistry contributes to the wider health. Most of the general public have got no idea what a medicinal chemist does so we felt it important to try and encourage some public engagement!

We also introduced plenary slots for first disclosures to the conference instead of them being in one of the parallel sessions. I’ve always thought first disclosures are one most exciting parts of any medicinal chemistry meeting as you get to see where your peers have been successful. Having these as plenary sessions made a significant difference and meant that we attracted more high profile first disclosures, which often went to the US previously.

Being 2016, the meeting happened just after the Brexit referendum. I think the leave result made promoting European connections even more important. So active involvement in the EFMC and support for European networking, as demonstrated by hosting this major European conference, was very valuable and timely.

I also really enjoyed organising the Cambridge Med Chem meetings. These are fabulous meetings, and with them being a smaller size and everyone staying in the same place the networking environment is really good and there’s always a great buzz around the meeting.

How has being a part of the panel benefitted your professional/personal development?

It’s certainly built my network of like-minded professionals. It’s been great to work in teams organising conferences. Very different from my day job! The committee members are all volunteers, getting involved because we find it worthwhile and enjoy the activities. We come with different backgrounds – from academia, biotech, CRO, big pharma - and it’s been really valuable to see the different cultures and perspectives which are brought to the group as well as learning from the ideas others bring and the way they solve problems

When I was chair, I saw my role as enabling the activities by making sure there was administrative support whilst minimising the bureaucracy involved for the committee members. Making sure we had a great supporting secretariat, and the required funds were key parts of this.

How do you think the activities of the BMCS impact on the wider chemistry community?

I think conferences are an absolutely key part of what we do as a community. Science in general benefits from communication so providing forums for sharing that knowledge is a key part to making advances.  

The popularity of the events we organise means any financial surpluses from these can be channelled back into wider community to encourage people into chemistry. We have funded training meetings such as the BMCS Postgraduate Symposium and the Mastering Med Chem Conference. We also fund bursaries and travel grants for students and postgraduates to go to conferences in the UK and different parts of the world.

We have a very active educational support group which provides over £20,000 a year in grants to support chemistry outreach in schools. In 2015, we were awarded an RSC inspirational committee award for the diversity and breadth of our outreach work.

We’d like to think the BMCS adds a lot back to the chemistry community, it’s not just about the networking for industry professionals, it also provides support right from early grass roots chemistry. 

What aspect of being on the panel have you enjoyed the most?

Working with a great group of people, who get an amazing amount of stuff done. The group benefits from a lot of autonomy for individual organising committees, who are given the freedom to shape events how they want.

It’s been a pleasure to work with such an enthusiastic group of people who work really hard, and I’d like to thank all the members of the committee past and present for their efforts.  People come up with great ideas all the time, for new conferences and wider initiatives like the travel awards and support for schools.

Being part of the BMCS and contributing to its achievements is something I’ve really enjoyed for the last 20+ years, and that’s all down to the commitment and enthusiasm of the committee.

To read the paper in full, click here.