Confirmed Speakers

Jean Quancard studied Chemistry at Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris and continued with a PhD in Chemical Biology at University of Pierre et Marie Curie. In 2004, he moved to Stanford University in the US for a Postdoc with Pr. Barry Trost. Jean joined Global Discovery Chemistry at Novartis in 2006 and since then worked in several therapeutic areas such as autoimmunity, oncology, ophthalmology and neuroscience. Currently, he is Executive Director in Discovery Chemistry. Jean received several awards including the 2016 Outstanding young medicinal chemist in industry from the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC) and co-authored more than 35 publications and patents. Jean is also a visiting lecturer in Drug Design at EPFL in Lausanne and leads the working group on Best Practices in Medicinal Chemistry for the EFMC.

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As a Director Medicinal Chemistry at Symeres, I am currently responsible for the leading of 5 different customer-oriented drug discovery projects. These projects vary from Lead Finding to Lead Optimization with the aim to deliver a preclinical candidate and consist of 2-10 chemists, in total about 30 chemists. The projects vary in the targets and disease areas, covering pain, inflammation, cancer, and anti-infectives. Analyzing biological data, establishing structure activity relationships and structure property relationships belong to my daily work. I started my career in 2006 with a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Rostock in Germany. After a PostDoc at DSM-Nutritional Products AG, Switzerland in Process Research and a PostDoc at Merck KGaA, Germany in the synthesis of fluorinated building blocks and natural product analogues, I joined in 2008 the Grünenthal GmbH, Germany as a Project lead and laboratory head Medicinal Chemistry. Since 2014 I am working for Symeres, former Mercachem.

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Rob Young joined Wellcome in February 1990, following BA/DPhil degrees at University of Oxford and a Post Doc at Ben May Institute, University of Chicago. His subsequent career navigated changes, mergers and acquisitions and positions of increasing responsibility to become a Scientific Leader and elected GSK Fellow. His career charted significant contributions to six development candidates in antivirals (HIV/HBV/Herpes), iNOS and Factor Xa, before a move to early-stage discovery (2006) fulfilling leadership roles numerous H2L programs, using diverse technologies including HTS, fragments, focussed & designed screens, and DNA-encoded libraries. Expertise in Physical Properties and the Property Forecast Index were developed in a productive partnership with Alan Hill spanning many years. Appointed/co-opted to numerous GSK cross-disciplinary initiatives and communities including in silico predictive modelling, DMPK, Physical Chemsitry, Stability and Safety. An author/inventor on more than 100 publications/ patent applications, he continues with writing endeavours with thought provoking perspectives. Rob is an honorary visiting Professor at The University of St Andrews. Rob took early retirement from GSK in July 2019 and set up Blue Burgundy to pursue medicinal chemistry consulting, training, and educational interests, with an active portfolio of clients encompassing academic institutions and companies of all sizes in many countries.



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Jean Quancard studied Chemistry at Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris and continued with a PhD in Chemical Biology at University of Pierre et Marie Curie. In 2004, he moved to Stanford University in the US for a Postdoc with Pr. Barry Trost. Jean joined Global Discovery Chemistry at Novartis in 2006 and since then worked in several therapeutic areas such as autoimmunity, oncology, ophthalmology and neuroscience. Currently, he is Executive Director in Discovery Chemistry. Jean received several awards including the 2016 Outstanding young medicinal chemist in industry from the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC) and co-authored more than 35 publications and patents. Jean is also a visiting lecturer in Drug Design at EPFL in Lausanne and leads the working group on Best Practices in Medicinal Chemistry for the EFMC.

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Andrea Unzue Lopez began her academic path at the University of the Basque Country, Spain, earning a Diploma in Chemistry from 2005 to 2010. In 2010, Dr. Lopez pursued a Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Zürich, supervised by Prof. Cristina Nevado. Over five years, she immersed herself in groundbreaking research, emerging with a Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2015. After her Ph.D., Dr. Lopez continued to expand her horizons with a postdoctoral position at the University of Zürich under Prof. Amedeo Caflisch in 2015-2016. This experience broadened her scientific perspective. In 2016, Dr. Lopez transitioned to Merck in Darmstadt, entering the pharmaceutical industry. She quickly rose through the ranks, serving as Lab Head in Medicinal Chemistry from 2016 to 2023, contributing significantly to drug development. Since 2023, Dr. Lopez has assumed a prominent role within Merck as the Head of TPD Chemistry and Associate Director in Medicinal Chemistry. Her commitment to advancing medicinal chemistry continues to drive innovation within the company.

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As a Director Medicinal Chemistry at Symeres, I am currently responsible for the leading of 5 different customer-oriented drug discovery projects. These projects vary from Lead Finding to Lead Optimization with the aim to deliver a preclinical candidate and consist of 2-10 chemists, in total about 30 chemists. The projects vary in the targets and disease areas, covering pain, inflammation, cancer, and anti-infectives. Analyzing biological data, establishing structure activity relationships and structure property relationships belong to my daily work. I started my career in 2006 with a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Rostock in Germany. After a PostDoc at DSM-Nutritional Products AG, Switzerland in Process Research and a PostDoc at Merck KGaA, Germany in the synthesis of fluorinated building blocks and natural product analogues, I joined in 2008 the Grünenthal GmbH, Germany as a Project lead and laboratory head Medicinal Chemistry. Since 2014 I am working for Symeres, former Mercachem.

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Rob Young joined Wellcome in February 1990, following BA/DPhil degrees at University of Oxford and a Post Doc at Ben May Institute, University of Chicago. His subsequent career navigated changes, mergers and acquisitions and positions of increasing responsibility to become a Scientific Leader and elected GSK Fellow. His career charted significant contributions to six development candidates in antivirals (HIV/HBV/Herpes), iNOS and Factor Xa, before a move to early-stage discovery (2006) fulfilling leadership roles numerous H2L programs, using diverse technologies including HTS, fragments, focussed & designed screens, and DNA-encoded libraries. Expertise in Physical Properties and the Property Forecast Index were developed in a productive partnership with Alan Hill spanning many years. Appointed/co-opted to numerous GSK cross-disciplinary initiatives and communities including in silico predictive modelling, DMPK, Physical Chemsitry, Stability and Safety. An author/inventor on more than 100 publications/ patent applications, he continues with writing endeavours with thought provoking perspectives. Rob is an honorary visiting Professor at The University of St Andrews. Rob took early retirement from GSK in July 2019 and set up Blue Burgundy to pursue medicinal chemistry consulting, training, and educational interests, with an active portfolio of clients encompassing academic institutions and companies of all sizes in many countries.



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