Newsroom
The European Chemical Biology Symposium (ECBS)
The European Chemical Biology Symposium (ECBS) is our flagship event and brings together Chemical Biologists from all parts of Europe and overseas to present and discuss the latest achievements in cutting edge chemical sciences. The ECBS is jointly organised every two years by EU-OPENSCREEN and the EuChemS Division of Chemistry for Life Sciences.
ICBS/ECBS2025, October 6–9, 2025 in Paris
14th Annual conference of the International Chemical Biology Society (ICBS) & 9th European Chemical Biology Symposium (ECBS)
EU-OPENSCREEN organises the 9th edition of its biennial scientific meeting, the European Chemical Biology Symposium (ECBS) on October 6–9, 2025, at the Sorbonne Université in Paris, France.
Ten years after the ICBS/ECBS2015 in Berlin, the last joint meeting with the International Chemical Biology Society (ICBS), the ICBS returns to Europe.
The upcoming ICBS/ECBS2025 is jointly organised by EU-OPENSCREEN, the European Chemical Society (EuChemS Division of Chemistry in Life Sciences), International Chemical Biology Society (ICBS) and the Chemical Biology Division of the French Chemical Society (SCF-ChemBio).
The main theme of the ICBS/ECBS2025 is "Approaching biology through chemistry" and several exciting topics will be addressed during the sessions. The conference brings together though leaders in the field and young minds from the global chemical biology community will discuss new approached to addressing the unmet challenges in the interface of chemistry and biology.
For further details please visit our event website:
https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/ecbs2025/overview.html
ELRIG´s Therapeutic OLIGOs & European Chemical Biology Symposium 2023
May 9-11, 2023, AstraZeneca R&D site in Gothenburg, Sweden
Our biennial flagship scientific conference, the European Chemical Biology Symposium (ECBS) brings together Chemical Biologists from all parts of Europe and overseas to present and discuss the latest achievements in cutting edge chemical sciences. The ECBS is jointly organised every two years by EU-OPENSCREEN and the EuChemS Division of Chemistry for Life Sciences.
The 8th edition of the ECBS (ECBS2023) will be held on May 9-11, 2023, at the AstraZeneca R&D site in Gothenburg, Sweden, as a combined event with the inaugural ELRIG meeting on Therapeutic OLIGOs. The conference will focus on exciting topics like Therapeutic OLIGO profiling, Advancements in OLIGO design and synthesis, Novel formulations and biomarker analysis, Chemical probe-induced protein interaction and degradation, New ways to shape and interrogate biology through chemistry, and innovative tools and methods for advanced cell profiling.
Please visit the event website for further information:
https://www.ecbs2023.eu
ECBS 2021 Virtual Conference
May 26-28, 2021
For free registration and abstract submission please visit the event website: https://ecbs2021.eu/
On behalf of the Scientific and Organizing Committees, it is our pleasure to invite you to the virtual European Chemical Biology Symposium (ECBS) 2021, which is jointly organised by EU-OPENSCREEN and the EuChemS Division of Chemistry for Life Sciences .The meeting builds on the success of the 6th ECBS/LS-EuChemS in Madrid in 2019, the 5th ECBS in Budapest 2017 and the ICBS/ECBS joint meeting in Berlin in 2015.
The virtual ECBS 2021 brings together scientists from Europe and overseas to present and discuss their latest achievements in cutting edge chemical sciences at the interface with biology and medicine, ranging from new therapeutic approaches to resistant pathogens and viral infections (special session on COVID19 research), to targeting of proteasome and protein aggregation, natural products, artificial intelligence in drug discovery, nanostructured biomaterials, synthetic biology, glycochemistry and biology, chemistry of life origin.
We encourage young researchers to present their work at the meeting (oral & flash presentations will be selected from submitted abstracts), and embrace the exciting developments currently happening in chemical biology.
The conference is split over 3 days – May 26th until May 28th starting with an opening lecture from Herbert Waldmann (Max-Planck Insitute of Molecular Physiology). The ECBS2021 further includes 9 sessions on
- Nanomedicine and biomaterials
- Targeted protein degradation
- Artificial intelligence & computational drug design
- Platforms in drug discovery
- Fighting resistant pathogens & new antiviral therapies
- Natural compound chemistry and biology
- Protein aggregation and self-assembly in disease
- Glycochemistry & -biology
- Origin of life & synthetic biology
and a dedicated evening session on Covid-19 research activities.
Abstract submission deadline: 31/03/2021
Free registration deadline: 31/04/2021
Please visit our conference website for the detailed programme:
https://ecbs2021.eu/
ECBS 2019 Madrid
April 3-5, 2019
On behalf of the Scientific and Organizing Committees, we were pleased to welcome participants to Madrid for the 6th ECBS/LS‑EuChemS meeting. The event brought together the 6th European Chemical Biology Symposium and the meeting of the EuChemS Division Chemistry in Life Sciences (LS‑EuChemS), jointly organized by EuChemS and EU‑OPENSCREEN. It followed the successful joint ICBS/ECBS meeting in Berlin (2015) and the 5th ECBS in Budapest (2017).
Chemical biologists from across Europe and overseas gathered to present and discuss the latest achievements in cutting‑edge chemical sciences. The joint meeting brought together researchers working in organic and biological chemistry, protein biotechnology, computational biology, protocells, machine learning, bacterial resistance, drug discovery, synthetic biology, biomedical materials and chemical glycobiology.
For further details please visit our event website:
https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/ecbs-2019
ECBS 2017 Budapest
July 2-4, 2017
During ECBS2017 in Budapest, Hungary, researchers in chemical biology presented recent advances in screening technologies, drug discovery, systems biology and therapeutic innovation.
The EU‑OPENSCREEN community met in Budapest from July 2–4 during the 5th European Chemical Biology Symposium. The event brought together more than 100 participants from 22 countries across Europe, Asia and the Americas, featuring three keynote lectures, eight plenary talks, nine oral presentations, four short talks and over 50 posters.
The keynote speakers offered complementary perspectives on the field: Herbert Waldmann (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, Dortmund) discussed natural‑product‑inspired small‑molecule library design; Stefan Knapp (Goethe University Frankfurt) highlighted strategies for validating emerging disease targets; and John P. Overington (Medicines Discovery Catapult, UK) addressed the development of chemical biology databases and the challenges of large‑scale data mining.
For further details please visit our event website:
https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/ecbs-2017/ecbs-2017-overview.html
ECBS 2015 Berlin
October 7-9, 2015
The joint ECBS & ICBS 2015 meeting in Berlin brought together researchers in chemical biology from fields including screening and drug discovery, systems biology, and therapeutic innovation. Building on the success of previous conferences—the 3rd ICBS in San Francisco (2014) and the 3rd ECBS in Vienna (2012)—the meeting fostered scientific exchange and professional collaboration within the global chemical biology community.
The conference welcomed more than 250 participants and featured four keynote lectures by Timothy Mitchison, David Tirrell, Carolyn Bertozzi, and Jason Chin. In addition, the program included 13 invited speakers, 20 selected oral presentations, and 30 short talks chosen from 90 poster submissions. Sessions covered six key areas of research: chemoproteomics, epigenetics, conjugates for targeted delivery, anti-infectives, molecular imaging, and the study of post-translational modifications and their structural and functional roles.
Visit the conference website for more information and impressions of the ECBS 2015:
www.ecbs2015.eu
ECBS 2012 Vienna
July 01-03, 2012
The meeting was attended by more than 130 researchers from all over the world, sharing an interest in the interdisciplinary field of Chemical Biology. It opened with a keynote lecture by Stuart Schreiber, Director of the Chemical Biology Program of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, and comprised 20 talks by invited speakers as well as short talks from participants and extended poster presentations.
The sessions encompassed a broad spectrum of modern chemical biology research from drug screening and drug discovery to cell differentiation and therapeutic innovation in the systems biology era.
Visit the conference website for more information and impressions.
https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/ecbs-2012/ecbs-2012-overview.html
ECBS 2010 Prague
May 20-21, 2010
The second European Chemical Biology Symposium focused on key topics including protein modifications, molecular chaperones, and stem cell biology. The meeting brought together researchers from a wide range of disciplines—chemistry, biology, pharmacology, chemoinformatics, and bioinformatics—who shared a common interest in the interdisciplinary field of chemical biology.
The symposium provided an excellent platform for scientific exchange, offering participants numerous opportunities to discuss ongoing research, explore emerging directions, and foster new collaborations within the international community.
Sessions included:
- Protein Modifications
- Chemical Biology in Europe and Beyond
- Chemical Chaperones and Protein Aggregation
- New Challenges and Avenues
- Stem Cell Biology
Visit the conference website for more information and impressions.
https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/ecbs-2010/ecbs-2010-overview.html
ECBS 2008 Budapest
The European Chemical Biology Symposium (ECBS 2008), held in Barcelona on 10–11 July 2008, was one of the early European meetings dedicated specifically to the emerging field of chemical biology. Organized jointly by the Barcelona Science Park (Parc Científic de Barcelona, PCB) and the Municipal Institute for Medical Research (IMIM-Hospital del Mar), the symposium aimed to bring together researchers working at the intersection of chemistry, biology, bioinformatics, and drug discovery.
The symposium took place across two major research venues in Barcelona — the Parc Científic de Barcelona and the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) — both of which were becoming important hubs for biomedical and translational research in Southern Europe. Internationally recognized scientists including Alex Levitzki and Ronald Frank contributed keynote lectures, underlining the conference’s ambition to position European chemical biology within a broader international context..