Rise up! grant for TU researcher Boehringer Ingelheim Stiftung supports Prof. Christopher Teskey as part of the Rise up! programme
Professor Christopher Teskey from Technische Universität Braunschweig has received a grant of 600,000 euros as part of the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation’s Rise up! Programme. The funds will enable him and his team to research more efficient methods of molecular editing. The method can significantly accelerate the development of active substances.
“When I found out this funding was successful, it was a really special moment. It means my team can dive into an entirely new research direction, finding efficient ways to fine-tune molecular geometry. I am convinced this could have a big impact on drug discovery in the long run,” says Professor Christopher Teskey from the Institute of Organic Chemistry of TU Braunschweig.
More than half of all newly approved drugs are small molecules developed by organic chemists. However, the synthesis of these molecules often requires several complex steps, which makes the process slow, time-consuming and resource-intensive.
To make drug development more efficient, chemists are using a technique known as molecular editing, which allows them to quickly and easily transform promising molecules into similar versions for use in tests. Rather than developing a completely new process from scratch, this approach enables precise changes to be made in just a few steps.
With this project (“Biomimetic catalysis for small molecule structural editing”), Professor Teskey and his team will focus on a less explored aspect of this field of research. Instead of adding or removing individual parts of a molecule, they will rearrange its structure in a single step, changing the original shape while leaving the overall composition and size unchanged. Such an adjustment may be subtle, but it can be enough to significantly improve the interaction of a drug with its target in the body.
About the Rise up! programme
The Rise up! programme is aimed at outstanding and exceptionally creative researchers from the fields of basic research in biology, chemistry and medicine who have accepted a W2 professorship at a German university for the first time. Funding is provided for particularly innovative research projects that could have a lasting impact on their field.
The Boehringer Ingelheim Stiftung is an independent, non-profit foundation committed to the promotion of the medical, biological, chemical and pharmaceutical sciences. It was established in 1977 by Hubertus Liebrecht, a member of the shareholder family of the Boehringer Ingelheim company. With its initiatives, funding programmes and science prizes, the foundation is particularly committed to providing scientists with the necessary freedom and optimal conditions needed for outstanding basic research and groundbreaking scientific achievements.
Christopher Teskey studied natural sciences at the University of Cambridge (UK). In 2012, he moved to the University of Manchester to complete his dissertation in organic chemistry under the supervision of Michael Greaney until 2016. He then completed a postdoc at the University of Vienna under Nuno Maulide, funded by a Lise Meitner Fellowship from the Austrian Science Fund. From 2019, he worked as a junior research group leader at RWTH Aachen University, funded by a Liebig Fellowship from the FCI, before accepting a W2 professorship at TU Braunschweig in November 2023. In 2024, he received the Lecturer Award of the Chemical Industry Fund, one of the highest honours for young scientists in chemistry, and the Niedersachsen-Impuls-Professorship.