This perspective article summarizes the conference “Medicinal and Crop Protection Chemistry: Breaking Barriers, Building Synergies,” held in Como, Italy, in October 2025 and later published in ChemMedChem (2026 Aug 27;21(16):e70441). The authors present the meeting as a forum that brought together scientists from medicinal and crop protection chemistry to examine shared conceptual frameworks and technological advances in the discovery and development of bioactive compounds.
The source frames the conference within the One Health perspective, as promoted by WHO, which recognizes the strong interconnection among human, animal, and environmental health. Within this rationale, cross-disciplinary integration is presented as a key strategy to confront global challenges. The authors emphasize that aligning strategies across sectors can contribute to sustainable solutions for both global health and food security.
The article highlights a growing convergence between the two disciplines. Although medicinal chemistry and crop protection chemistry have traditionally evolved as separate sectors, the meeting underscored their common goal of discovering and developing bioactive compounds. The source stresses that many conceptual approaches and technologies are now shared or relevant to both fields, creating fertile ground for dialogue and collaborative adaptation of methods.
According to the source, the meeting reviewed established approaches in bioactive molecule discovery that remain central to both sectors. Two specific strategies noted were bioisosterism and covalent ligand design. These classical medicinal chemistry techniques were discussed in the context of how they can inform or be adapted for agrochemical design and optimization, and vice versa.
The conference presentations and discussions, as summarized in the article, spanned several emerging modalities and enabling technologies. Key items reported in the source include:
AI-assisted discovery: computational and data-driven methods were identified as increasingly important across both disciplines for hit finding, optimization, and predictive modeling.
Targeted protein degradation: new degradation technologies, exemplified by approaches such as PROTACs, were discussed as a frontier in modulating biological targets and as a potential area of cross-sector interest.
Nucleic-acid based approaches: dsRNA (double-stranded RNA) strategies were listed among the topics, reflecting interest in RNA-based control mechanisms relevant to pest and pathogen management as well as molecular targeting paradigms.
Conjugate strategies: ligand-targeted drug conjugates were named in the source keywords, indicating discussion of targeted delivery concepts applicable to both therapeutic and crop protection agents.
The authors present these modalities as examples of technological convergence where innovations from one sector may catalyze new directions in the other.
A central theme in the source is the distinction between simple transfer of technologies and thoughtful exchange with adaptation. The article states the conference encouraged exchange and adaptation of innovative strategies rather than their direct transfer. This nuance underscores the need to consider sector-specific requirements—such as environmental exposure, regulatory frameworks, and target biology—when applying methods developed in one field to the other.
The authors report that the congress represented an important opportunity to catalyze dialogue across medicinal and crop protection chemistry. They express the view that continued interdisciplinary initiatives can stimulate collaborations aimed at sustainable solutions. The source frames these collaborations as contributing to the broader objectives of global health and food security by leveraging shared knowledge and technologies.
The article lists the authors and affiliations as follows: Giulia Cazzaniga, Giusy L Fratello, Alexander T Apostle, and Silvia Gazzola (Science and High Technology Department, Insubria University, Como, Italy) and Roberto Orru and David M Barber (Research and Development Weed Control, Crop Science Division, Bayer AG, Frankfurt am Main, Germany). The source provides bibliographic identifiers: PMID 42647067 and DOI 10.1002/cmdc.70441. The published piece includes keywords explicitly cited in the source: PROTAC; crop protection chemistry; drug discovery; dsRNA; ligand targeted drug conjugate.
Notes on source limitations
The summary presented here reflects the content reported in the source perspective. The article is a conference perspective and does not report original experimental data or quantitative outcomes. Detailed experimental results, individual presentation specifics, or exhaustive lists of talks and speakers were not provided in the source abstract and therefore are not included in this summary.