"The ultimate goal of drug research is to synthesize more effective new medicines than currently available. Therefore such research must embrace low-risk approaches promising rapid results", said Austrian biochemist Christian R. Noe in his inauguration lecture. The scientist believes that Hungarian biological, biochemical and biomedicinal research ventures are very likely to become cutting-edge science.

"The honorary membership of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences means a lot to me", Professor Noe said. He has had personal connections with several Hungarian researchers for a long time, and has kept an eye on the development of  Hungarian scientific activities. "I think the quality of science conducted in research institutes of the Academy is outstanding even by international standards." Referring to the highly acclaimed results of Hungarian life sciences, the professor of the University of Vienna pointed out: the scientific work done in research institutes such as the Institute of Enzymology of HAS' Research Centre for Natural Sciences rightly deserves the attention of the international scientific community.

   Starting out as an organic chemist, the scientist received an unexpected invitation to become head of the Medicinal Chemistry Department of the University of Frankfurt some 20 years ago. "This was a completely new and unknown field for me at the time", he said, "but I drew strength from the fact that my new scientific career could have a profound impact on the well-being of people." Christian R. Noe primarily studied the biochemical link between nucleic acids such as RNA, certain cell receptors, and the effect-mechanisms of certain drugs. "I wanted to understand the relationship between receptor kinetics and the effectiveness of various drug therapies." As a chairman of the scientific community of the European Innovative Medicines Initiative, he has as one of his tasks to suggest novel and promising ways for drug development in Europe. "I also try to make decision-makers aware of the importance of shortening the time between discovery research and industrial production."

   In his inauguration talk, Christian R. Noe pointed out that throughout history there have always been distinct paradigms in drug therapies from the early spiritual concepts to today's evidence-based approaches. "Drug research has made a tremendous forward-leap in the last 50 years. Today, the production of artificial molecules capable of asserting a healing effect is almost perfect." According to the scientist, by the ever increasing understanding of biological systems, target based drug therapies have become possible, even on the genome level. "We need to be able to use the large body of knowledge accumulated about the operation of human cells for developing effective drug treatments. That was the main point of my lecture."

   About the main challenges drug research faces today, Christian R. Noe pointed to the fact that companies tend to turn away from high-risk discovery research, thus leaving such scientific undertakings to smaller enterprises and academies with much smaller budgets. "The future of drug therapy depends on to what an extent we are going to be able to understand the molecular basis of diseases, and the exact biochemical mechanisms in different pathologies."