Professor Steven Ballet, head of the Organic Chemistry research group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, has received the international Evotec Award for Excellence in Molecular Design from the French Société de Chimie Thérapeutique. He was selected for his development of a generic tool molecule that accelerates drug development, using a technique that mimics natural proteins. "We hope this will allow us to take a step further in the development of drugs for cardiovascular diseases and pain," says Prof Ballet.
Drugs often act on receptors located in the cell. Ballet and his colleagues developed tool molecules that allow them to freeze a cell’s dynamic receptors in a more accessible form. ...
