"Young Medicinal Chemist Award in Belgium (SRC)" awarded to PhD student Manon Mirgaux

Manon Migraux is a PhD candidate in the Laboratory of Structural Biological Chemistry (CBS) led by Prof. Johan Wouters (UNamur, NARILIS/NISM institutes). Her doctoral thesis aims at understanding the functioning of dynamic loops in proteins considered as potential targets for cancer immunotherapy. Her work focuses specifically on the dynamic behavior of the JK-loop of the human indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO) hemoprotein, a protein exerting an immunosuppressive effect and facilitating immune escape of tumors. The research conducted by Manon relies on the use of a multidisciplinary approach mixing protein crystallography, biochemistry and computational modelling techniques (Mirgaux et al., 2021; Mirgaux et al., 2020). Her findings will form a solid basis for the design of novel IDO inhibitors able to effectively restore anti-tumor immune defenses.  

On May 19, 2022, Manon Mirgaux had the opportunity to present her work during the 3^rd symposium of the FNRS contact group “Medicinal Chemistry” at the UNamur. With her brilliant talk entitled “A fundamental study of protein dynamism to the rescue of drug design: application to hIDO1”, she was selected as the winner of the Young Medicinal Chemist Award in Belgium (SRC)! Thanks to this prize, Manon is now invited to give an oral communication at the international conference “EFMC Young Medicinal Chemists' Symposium" to be held in September 2022 in Nice!