Dear colleagues and friends,

Welcome

On behalf of the Hellenic Society of Medicinal Chemistry and the Organizing Committee, it is our great pleasure to invite you to the 21st Hellenic Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry (HSMC-21), which will be held in Thessaloniki in April 2027.

For more than three decades, the HSMC Symposia have brought together the Greek medicinal chemistry community and its international collaborators, providing a forum for presenting new research, exchanging ideas and establishing scientific collaborations. Building on the success of our previous meetings, HSMC-21 aims once again to welcome established scientists, young researchers and students working across the broad and continuously evolving landscape of medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry.

The scientific programme reflects the multidisciplinary character of our Society. It covers the classical areas of medicinal chemistry, drug design, lead identification and optimization, synthetic medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, pharmacology, computational chemistry, chemoinformatics and ADME/Tox. Pharmaceutical analysis, including modern analytical methodologies and omics approaches in pharmaceutical sciences, is also an important part of the programme. Natural products chemistry, including the isolation, characterization and biological evaluation of natural compounds, represents another established area of interest of our scientific community.

Our ambition is to reflect the inherently multidisciplinary and integrative nature of modern medicinal chemistry, where research increasingly combines complementary experimental, computational, biological and analytical approaches. HSMC-21 will provide an environment for fruitful scientific exchange, the development of new ideas and the establishment of new collaborations.

We are particularly pleased that the 21st Symposium will take place in Thessaloniki, a city with a long history as a crossroads of people, cultures and ideas and, today, one of Greece's major academic and scientific centres. Its universities and research institutions, together with its growing life-sciences and pharmaceutical research environment, make Thessaloniki a particularly fitting setting for our meeting.

The official language of the Symposium will be English, reflecting both the international character of contemporary medicinal chemistry and our wish to welcome colleagues and friends from abroad who have contributed over the years to the scientific life of our Society.

Above all, HSMC-21 will be an opportunity to meet again, to discuss science, to renew long-standing friendships and to create new ones. We very much look forward to welcoming you to Thessaloniki in April 2027 and to sharing with you three days of science, discussion and collaboration.