Upcoming events
The 13th Paul Walden Symposium will take place on September 14th-15th, 2023 in Riga, Latvia. For more information please visit Symposium website.
Past events
The Paul Walden Symposium on Organic Chemistry, once every two years, brings together scientists, scholars, and students from the universities, research institutes, and representatives of the Baltic States in Paul Walden’s homeland. The first Paul Walden Symposium took place in 1998.
For more information please visit Symposium website.
From September 22nd to 24th, the Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis (LIOS) hosted the 2nd Drug Discovery Conference (DDC2022) in Riga, which brought together 43 excellent speakers from 14 countries and more than 200 participants. After the pandemic, this was a long-awaited opportunity for scientists and students from academia and the pharmaceutical industry worldwide to meet face-to-face and to share exciting results and to spark new ideas for future achievements.
The conference covered modern trends in drug discovery related to organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, structural biology, and drug delivery. The lectures included achievements in developing anti-infective, anticancer, CNS, and cardiovascular drugs.
The conference was opened by the minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia Anita Muižniece. She emphasized the importance of discovering new drugs:
“The COVID-19 pandemic has reaffirmed the importance of developing new treatments to tackle unexpected challenges. The pandemic has also left an impact on well-known chronic diseases. However, we can be certain – new drugs have provided enormous progress in treating diseases that were previously fatal.”Anita Muižniece pointed out a historical roots of the drug discovery in Latvia and also added:
"Drug discovery is a unique field, and we can be proud that Latvia can provide the entire research life cycle in this area – from the design of new molecules to clinical trials. The Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis is a flagship institution in discovering new drugs."



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Drug Discovery Conference




Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis and the 7th EU FP project InnovaBalt have organized Drug Discovery Conference, taking place August 27-29, 2015 at the Radisson Blu Hotel Latvia, Riga, Latvia. The Drug Discovery conference covered topics starting from organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry to biological and pharmacological applications of novel ligands. Conference scientific program and discussions have been organized for chemists in organic and analytical chemistry and process development, as well as pharmacologists and biologists to present investigations of mechanistic aspects of developmental drugs. The conference started with opening of memorial plaque honouring talented science organizer and founder of the Institute, Professor Solomon Hiller (1915.-1975.) at IOS building (Aizkraukles street 21). Prof. Paul Finn (InhibOx CEO) was awarded with prof.S. Hiller medal for contribution to the development of the IOS. There was a satellite seminar dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Chemistry of Heterocyclic Compound journal.