The XXVI EFMC International Symposium on Medical Chemistry, organized by the European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry, was held on 28.08-02.09.2021. The conference covered topics including advances in drug discovery in major therapeutic areas, as well as the latest developments in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence in drug discovery and chemical synthesis, the role of carbohydrates in disease pathology and carbohydrate-based drug discovery, the use of RNA as a drug target, stem cell differentiation induced by small molecules, and the impact of cryo-EM on drug discovery and design. Our PhD student Patryk Szymaszek presented a poster on the topic: "Spectroscopic studies of novel fluorescent sensors and their biological application for albumin detection".