These annual awards recognize two early-career researchers who have displayed impact and/or promise of impact to the field of medicinal chemistry. Learn more about the 2025 winners, Leslie Burnett and David Heppner.
The Editors of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, and the ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry (MEDI) are pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 Philip S. Portoghese Journal of Medicinal Chemistry/ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters/Division of Medicinal Chemistry Joint Lectureship Awards:
- Dr. Leslie Burnett, Revolution Medicines, United States
- Prof. David Heppner, SUNY Buffalo, United States
These annual awards are named in honor of Professor Philip S. Portoghese, who served as Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Medicinal Chemistry from 1972 to 2011. The awards are given to young investigators who have displayed impact and/or promise of impact to the field of medicinal chemistry and are presented yearly at the ACS Fall Meeting.
The awards will be presented at ACS Fall 2025 in Washington, D.C., from August 17-21, where the winners will each present a lecture along with other prominent researchers in the field as part of the MEDI Award Session.
The winners will also present their research via an award webinar on June 12, 2025, moderated by Prof. Kelly Chibale, Editor-in-Chief of ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, and Prof. Craig Lindsley, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.
Learn more about the winners and their research below.
Dr. Leslie Burnett
Les Burnett is a Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Revolution Medicines. In this role, he has led chemistry development for two clinical candidates: RMC-5552, a potential first-in-class, bi-steric, mTORC1-selective inhibitor that is under evaluation as an IV agent to treat tumors with hyperactive mTORC1 signaling (NCT04774952, NCT05557292); and zoldonrasib (RMC-9805), an oral, RAS(ON) G12D-selective, covalent, tri-complex inhibitor for the treatment of RAS-addicted pancreatic, non-small cell lung, and colorectal cancers—currently in Phase I/Ib (NCT06040541).
Dr. Burnett currently serves as the project lead for an undisclosed RAS(ON) program and leads the development of a DNA Encoded Library (DEL) platform. Before joining Revolution Medicines, he completed his graduate and postdoctoral work at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he focused on natural product total synthesis and small molecule methodology development.
What does this award mean to you?
It’s an honor to be recognized with the Philip S. Portoghese Joint Lectureship Award. I am grateful to work with a very talented team that continues to push the boundaries in drug development to improve patient outcomes.
What inspired you to pursue your area of research?
My graduate training focused on natural product total synthesis, where I enjoyed designing routes for complex and densely functionalized compounds. After graduate school and postdoctoral training, I wanted to apply my experience to a field that could have a great impact. Moving into drug discovery was a natural progression and continues to be an exciting, evolving field.
What do you consider to be the most exciting advances in medicinal chemistry in the past five years?
There’s been a lot of advances in recent years. I am particularly excited about the developments in the molecular glue and PROTAC space. The ability to leverage ligand-mediated protein-protein interactions has opened the door to drugging targets with relatively featureless binding pockets through steric occlusion or degradation mechanisms.
What would your advice be to someone just starting out in the field?
I would advise them to join a team with a track record of delivering drugs into the clinic, and work closely with cross-functional teams to understand the drug discovery process as a whole.
Prof. David Heppner
David Heppner is the J. Solo Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at The State University of New York at Buffalo. He obtained his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota and Ph.D. in Chemistry with Edward I. Solomon from Stanford University. He acquired training in biomedical research as an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of Vermont and subsequently in medicinal chemistry, cancer biology, and structural biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. The Heppner Lab applies a structural perspective to drug discovery and focuses on developing novel small molecules relevant to several diseases.
What does this award mean to you?
This recognition is an incredible and unexpected honor, and I’m deeply grateful. It means a great deal to have our still-growing research program acknowledged in this way—it’s both validating and motivating. I’ve long admired the ACS medicinal chemistry journals, not just for their scientific rigor but for the real-world impact they’ve had on advancing human health. Being recognized in association with the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry and ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters is truly distinctive. Additionally, although I do not have a direct connection to Dr. Portoghese, I am especially grateful for the shared ties to the University of Minnesota, where he built his independent career and where I was fortunate to train as an undergraduate. The U and its faculty have shaped me in many ways, and this award brings an element of this meaningfully full circle.
What inspired you to pursue your area of research?
Interestingly, I did not initially set out to pursue drug discovery research; it found me during the latter part of my mentored career. Throughout my scientific journey, one constant source of inspiration has been my deep fascination with molecular structure. This interest led me to join a computational chemistry group at the University of Minnesota and naturally progressed into graduate studies in bioinorganic chemistry. There, I investigated copper active sites in metalloproteins and explored how their structures govern long-range electron transfer.
My postdoctoral work was intentionally selected to bridge my chemistry background with biomedical research, ultimately guiding me to my current position at the University at Buffalo. The Department of Chemistry, through its Medicinal Chemistry program, has provided the ideal environment to establish an independent research program centered on drug discovery. This path has been a natural evolution, integrating my passion for both chemical and biochemical structure with an emphasis on medicine.
What do you consider to be the most exciting advances in medicinal chemistry in the past five years?
This turned out to be harder than I expected! It's impossible not to be excited by the emergence of methods tackling classically “undruggable” targets, the ever-expanding arsenal of covalent agents, and breakthroughs in historically stubborn systems like K-Ras (shout out to Les!). At the same time, medicinal chemistry and drug discovery research is chock-full of diverse and exciting advances with real meaning for patients—just attend an ACS MEDI “First Time Disclosures” session to get a sense of the constant stream of innovation happening at any given moment. For the most part, an innovative and creative HTS screen coupled structure-guided design is always exciting.
What would your advice be to someone just starting out in the field?
Embrace teamwork. See yourself as part of a collaborative effort, and value the contributions of your colleagues and collaborators over your own.
Engage in mentorship—both as a mentee and a mentor. Actively seek mentors who can help you grow and refine your goals. Be open to conversations about your mentoring expectations that clarify and adjust to your career path. And remember, it’s never too early to support someone else’s journey and be their mentor!
Reframe challenges as innovation opportunities. Treat negative, counterintuitive, or unexpected results—and persistent obstacles—not as setbacks, but as valuable avenues for insights that can drive genuine innovation in your research.
Learn About Last Year's Winners
