Chemical Biology Workshop: Drug & Biomarker Discovery, Athens, November 23-25 2023
From left: Marianne Haug, Maria Chatzidaki, Magnus Grenegård, Madelene Lindkvist, Karin H Franzén, Maria Zervou together with NHRF's director and chairman Professor Dimosthenis A. Sarigiannis.
Magnus Grenegård, Karin H Franzén, Madelene Lindkvist and Marianne Haug participated at the Chemical Biology Workshop: Drug & Biomarker Discovery, arranged by the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF) in Athens in memory of Dr Michael Alexis, former Researcher Emeritus at NHRF.
NHRF is one of the largest research centers in Greece and was founded in 1958. Associate professor Karin H Franzén and Professor Magnus Grenegård at the Cardiovascular Research Centre (CVRC) at Örebro University have an established collaboration with Dr Maria Koufaki and Dr Maria Zervou at NHRF on the effect of purine-piperazine analogues on vascular inflammation and thrombosis. At the workshop, Magnus Grenegård gave a lecture entitled “Pharmacological characterization of nitrate ester bearing 6-piperazinyl-purine analogues” and presented on the role of purine analogues on hemostasis and vascular inflammation.
- This is an excellent example of true translational medicine and an interdisciplinary collaboration between CVRC at Örebro University and NHRF. Jointly, we work with novel drug candidates in early drug discovery pipeline, including design, synthesis, in silico modeling and preclinical evaluation of novel bioactive compounds, says Magnus Grenegård.
Karin H Franzén leads the project on biological evaluation of the inhibition of vascular inflammation by purine analogues, initiated in 2015 by Dr Maria Koufaki, NHRF, who is responsible for chemical synthesis. Since then, Dr Maria Zervou has joined the project and is responsible for in silico studies, performed at NHRF. Madelene Lindkvist, post doc, and Marianne Haug, PhD student at CVRC work in the project. The group has several projects in pipeline and the collaboration on purine-piperazine analogues has so far resulted in two PhD theses, published papers in high-impact scientific journals, several jointly written research grant applications and master theses.
- In the frame of the collaboration where we have the fantastic possibility to combine the specific expert competences at NHRF and Örebro University. We appreciate this valuable collaboration with the researchers at NHRF very much; we complement each other very nicely and we hope we can continue and expand the collaboration between Örebro University and NHRF, says Karin H Franzén.
During the workshop, there were also several opportunities for interaction with international researchers and networking. The delegation from CVRC also met the NHRF Director and Chairman of the Board, Professor Dimosthenis A. Sarigiannis.
- The NHRF collaboration with Örebro University is invaluable to us; it provides an important link with international academia while focusing on key areas of translational biomedical research, an important priority area for the Greek research community. Complementary skills, joint use of state-of-the-art tools, and continued scientific exchange are fundamental pillars of an internationally competitive research pair that demonstrably brings novel scientific knowledge into concrete results to the benefit of society. We are particularly enthusiastic about the collaboration avenues opening up ahead of us in the frame of the brand new NHRF Center of Excellence on cancer theranostics and NHRF-wide initiative on the link between environment and human health promoting precision medicine and prevention, says Professor Dimosthenis A. Sarigiannis.
Karin H Franzéns and Magnus Grenegårds research projects are funded by the Knowledge foundation call Synergi-21 on inflammation in cardiovascular disease and breast cancer.