On 25 February 2025, IOCB Prague hosted the annual Tony Holý Lecture, honoring the legacy of its distinguished scientist Prof. Antonín Holý. This year’s distinguished speaker was Professor Morten Peter Meldal from the University of Copenhagen, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist renowned for his pioneering work in click chemistry.
Professor Meldal, who was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside K. Barry Sharpless and Carolyn R. Bertozzi for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry, delivered a lecture titled The INAIC Reaction: An Intramolecular Click Reaction.
He discussed the copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) click reaction, which he co-discovered in 2001, explaining its mechanism and broad applications. He also talked about the INAIC click reaction, which enables selective formation of complex molecular structures through entropy-driven intramolecular transformations.
Meldal highlighted the potential of these reactions in drug discovery, particularly in designing 3D-ligands for GPCR receptors and developing macrocyclic peptides for therapeutic applications.
At the conclusion of the lecture, IOCB Prague director Prof. Jan Konvalinka presented Professor Meldal with a Tony Holý Lecture plaque, honoring his contributions to chemistry.
The Tony Holý Lecture series was established in 2015 to honor the legacy of Prof. Antonín Holý, whose research at IOCB Prague led to life-saving antiviral drugs, transforming the treatment of HIV worldwide. Since its inception, the series has welcomed several distinguished scientists, including Prof. Hans-Georg Kräusslich, Dr. Tomáš Cihlář, Prof. Christa Müller, and Dr. John C. Martin.
