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Cutting-edge science in medicinal chemistry
The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Network MC4DD follows an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach to expand the opportunities of macrocycles as next-generation drug modalities. It brings together 8 academic and 5 industrial groups who are experts in macrocyclic drug discovery with their competences covering the fields of organic synthesis, medicinal, high-throughput and computational chemistry, pharmacological and structural analytics, and modelling. It is coordinated by the Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany, and offers a mobility and training platform for young scientists by means of cross-site, interdisciplinary research projects. |
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Our 17 Ph.D. positions have now been filled!
MC 4DD Offers to its Doctoral Candidates (DCs): - International PhD program and environment - Interdisciplinary, double supervision - Mentorship by industrial partners - Doctoral Training via dedicated thematic workshops - Extracurricular seminars and workshops -Researcher Mobility via Secondments - Academic and industrial experience |
The 17 MC4DD Doctoral Candidates:
coming from 10 countries all over the world! Our project offers excellent research and training in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. We promote the careers of young researchers by offering intersectoral and multidisciplinary mobility and training in a variety of aspects in medicinal chemistry. To complement the academic and scientific goals, we offer customized research projects, structured interdisciplinary, local and network-wide transferable skills training activities, and secondments at top-ranking European universities and industry partners. Join our vibrant research community: Attend our online lecture series on all things macrocycles! Download our flyer here! |
The MC4DD Doctoral Network is funded under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) within Horizon Europe, which supports excellent research, cross-sectoral mobility and structured doctoral training. The project addresses a central challenge in drug discovery: Although macrocyclic compounds (MCs) are uniquely positioned to modulate intracellular and otherwise “undruggable” targets with shallow or featureless binding surfaces, their broader application is limited by synthetic complexity and an incomplete understanding of MC-specific structure-property relationships.
MC4DD aims to close these gaps by combining advanced synthetic methodologies, biophysical and structural biology techniques, computational modelling and pharmacological evaluation. Its overarching objective is to accelerate macrocycle discovery for challenging protein and RNA targets. MC4DD will train 12 MSCA-funded and 5 associated Doctoral Candidates (DCs) in a highly collaborative, cross-sectoral environment. In line with MSCA principles, the project integrates excellence in research with high-quality supervision, intersectoral mobility and comprehensive scientific and transferable-skills training.
