Medicinal chemistry summer school 2026

The Royal Society of Chemistry Medicinal Chemistry Summer School will cover topics of interest to drug discovery researchers, helping to increase understanding of the factors governing modern drug discovery from the initial concept through to translational science and intellectual property. Established since 1981, our Summer School has trained many of the world' s leading medicinal chemists working in the pharmaceutical industry and academic research institutes.

Who should attend?

The school is designed for graduate and post-doctoral chemists with 1-5 years' experience in the field of drug research. Drug discovery is an interdisciplinary subject so delegates from biological or computational backgrounds will benefit from attendance at the school.

In addition, final year PhD students from pharmaceutical or organic chemistry contemplating a career in drug discovery are also encouraged to attend.

Method and Structure

The 2026 Summer School will take place over 5 days and content is delivered by experts in the field from industry and academia. The programme includes lectures focusing on the fundamental principles of drug discovery, hands-on tutorials allowing delegates to put into practice what they have learnt and case histories from previous drug discovery projects. The programme will also include an evening lecture from a distinguished speaker.

Throughout the week course tutors and speakers will be available for informal discussion and there will be plenty of opportunities to network with the broad range of academic and industrial researchers in attendance.

Subject to change, the programme will run from 08:00 on Monday 8 June and will finish at 13:00 on Friday 12 June. An optional welcome reception will take place on Sunday evening.

Topics

The course includes the following topics:

• Target Validation
• Computational Chemistry
• Biological Mechanisms
• Pharmacokinetics and Drug Metabolism
• Screening of New Compounds
• Patents
• Molecular Biology in Medicinal Chemistry
• Exploiting a Chemical Lead
• Combinatorial Chemistry and Molecular Diversity
• Case Histories of Drug Discovery
• Toxicology in Drug Discovery
• Pharmaceutical Considerations in Drug Development
• Structure-guided Drug Design
• Physical Properties and Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships
• Hints and Tips in Medicinal Chemistry

Handbook of Medicinal Chemistry

The Royal Society of Chemistry is pleased to offer all registered delegates the opportunity to purchase the 2nd edition of the Handbook of Medicinal Chemistry (published in 2022). The Handbook is written to complement the Medicinal Chemistry Summer School tutorial content and is recommended as an ideal overview of the content of the School.

Delegates can purchase the book at the discounted rate of 40% from the RSC online bookshop.

Careers consultations

Medicinal Chemistry Summer School delegates can also book one of 20 career consultation appointments with an RSC career and professional development adviser who will review your CV and provide one-to-one advice.

Slots will be available to book via the link in the Introduction section of this page. If the slots are fully booked, please email [email protected] including information that you are attending the Medicinal Chemistry Summer School and the Careers Team will contact you directly to arrange an alternative slot.

Please note these consultations are only available for RSC members.