Michael E. Jung, of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA, has been awarded the 2022 IUPAC-Richter Prize in recognition of his research, which has afforded new drugs for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. The acceptance lecture will be held in New York, NY, USA (June 26-29, 2022) at the 37th ACS National Medicinal Chemistry Symposium and he will present a second lecture at the XXVII EFMC International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry in Nice, France (Sept. 4-8, 2022).

After much deliberation, the jury decided to award the 2022 IUPAC-Richter Prize to Professor Michael E. Jung from the University of California Los Angeles. The successful medicinal chemistry research work of Michael E. Jung afforded two drugs for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. Both drugs are androgen receptor antagonists and represent ground-breaking advancements in the discovery of new agents in this drug class. His research has resulted in treatments that have extended the lives of tens of thousands of men with prostate cancer.

Professor Jung’s work is a unique and encouraging example of an academic contribution to drug research and a foreshadow of today’s environment, where we see increasing interest in drug discovery within the academic sector.