2025 High Throughput Chemistry and Chemical Biology Gordon Research Conference and Gordon Research Seminar

This grant supports the 2025 Gordon Research Conference on High-Throughput Chemistry and Chemical Biology (HTCCB GRC). Since its inception as Combinatorial Chemistry, the HTCCB GRC has convened regularly over the past 25 years to discuss cutting-edge technologies in chemical biology that advance the discovery of novel molecular pathologies and drug mechanisms of action, driving the development of new medicines. In 2025, high-impact technologies central to the conference includes mass spectrometry-based proteomics, targeted protein degradation and other induced-proximity medicines, encoded library technologies (such as DNA-encoded libraries, mRNA display, phage display, and SELEX), oligonucleotide and other beyond-rule-of-5 therapeutic modalities, and phenotypic cellular lead identification. With the advent of AlphaFold and the growing accessibility of generative artificial intelligence, the 2025 HTCCB GRC will thoroughly examine the impact and potential of these computational strategies. New for our 2025 conference is the sub-theme, “Harnessing Chemical and Biological Data at Scale in Pursuit of Generative AI for Drug Discovery,” reflecting the community’s interest in exploring how AI might yield novel insights from the complex, large-scale data sets in contemporary drug discovery. Like all GRCs, our conference will be “off the record” to encourage attendees to share their most compelling, unpublished work, and it will take place at a remote site in New England (Colby-Sawyer College) to foster cross-disciplinary engagement and in-depth discussions. The conference program includes nine sessions, each moderated by an expert discussion leader, focusing on these themes. We will proactively engage junior (untenured) faculty as speakers and discussion leaders to integrate them into our community of academic, industrial, and government scientists.