Biography:  Dr. Cristian Sala has been a full professor in the Organic Chemistry Department at the Faculty of Chemistry of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile since 2005. His job includes teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students and supervising postdoctoral researchers in the field of organic and medicinal chemistry. His research in medicinal chemistry, since 2013 to date, aims to understand the scope of synthetic purine derivatives in the biological context of cancer. One of his projects had the main goal of the design and synthesis of new 2,6,9-trisubstitued purine derivatives and evaluation of their ability to inhibit in vitro the Hedgehog pathway, antagonising the effects mediated by the activation of the Smoothened (Smo) receptor in several cancer cell lines”. From this project, Cristain and co-workers identified a new potent Smo antagonist that exhibited antitumor effects in in vitro and in vivo models. The main goal of their current project is “to design, synthesize, and evaluate in vitro and in vivo models of new 2,6-9 trisubstituted purine derivatives as potent Bcr-Abl and Btk inhibitors for leukaemia therapy”.