Medicinal and Crop Protection Chemistry: Breaking Barriers, Building Synergies

Recognizing the strong interconnection between human, animal, and environmental health, the "One Health" perspective listed by WHO promotes cross-disciplinary integration as a key strategy to address global challenges. Within this framework, this perspective article summarizes the key themes and future directions emerging from the conference "Medicinal and Crop Protection Chemistry: Breaking Barriers, Building Synergies," held in Como, Italy, in October 2025. The meeting highlighted the strong conceptual and technological convergence between medicinal and crop protection science, two disciplines that share common goals in the discovery and development of bioactive compounds despite traditionally evolving as separate sectors. Emphasis was particularly placed on providing an updated overview of the latest advances in drug and agrodrug development through those strategies discussed during the congress, which ranged from established approaches in bioactive molecule discovery, such as bioisosterism and covalent ligand design, to emerging modalities including AI-assisted discovery and targeted protein degradation technologies. We believe that the congress represented an important opportunity to catalyze dialog across both sectors, encouraging the exchange and adaptation of innovative strategies rather than their simple transfer, with the hope that this interdisciplinary initiative will continue to grow and stimulate future collaborations toward sustainable solutions for global health and food security.