Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery

Head of Division: Alan Fairlamb
Deputy Head of Division: Ian Gilbert
Secretary: Claire Kadoch, Kate Scott,
Lab Manager: Shona McInroy , Brian Weryk

The overarching theme of the Division is "the discovery of chemical solutions to biological problems" through excellence in basic and applied multidisciplinary research. Discovery, characterization and validation of drug targets in neglected diseases such as trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, malaria and other bacterial pathogens is a major research focus. Knowledge gained from these fundamental studies forms the foundation for translation into novel drug-like leads through a combination of high throughput screening, structure based design and medicinal chemistry. We also have an interest in discovering small molecules that influence stem cell fate in order to develop specific cell types for drug discovery. To meet these challenges in basic and translational research, members of the Division include specialists in bioinformatics, enzymology, molecular biology, glycobiology, in vitro and in vivo pharmacology and synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry.

Group Leaders

Geoff Barton
Professor of Bioinformatics
Protein and nucleic acid sequence analysis and functional predictions
Ruth Brenk
Lecturer in Computational Chemistry
Developing and applying computational methods to predict the interactions of small molecules with macromolecules.
Alan Fairlamb
Professor of Biochemistry, Wellcome Principal Research Fellow and Head of the Division of Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery
Mike Ferguson
Professor of Molecular Parasitology and Dean of Research
Molecular parasitology, glycobiology and drug discovery
Ian Gilbert
Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Deputy-Head of the Division of Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery
Design and synthesis of potential therapeutic agents
David Gray
Head of Biology
Molecular Pharmacology and Compound Screening
Andrew Hopkins
Professor of Medicinal Informatics and SULSA Research Professor of Translational Biology
Chemoinformatics, chemogenomics and drug discovery
Bill Hunter
Professor of Structural Biology
Protein structure and function; fundamental chemical biology and early stage antimicrobial drug discovery
Andrei Nikolaev
Reader in Organic Chemistry
The chemical synthesis of complex phosphosaccharides
Kevin Read
Head of DMPK for the Drug Discovery Unit
Distribution, metabolism and pharmacokinetics of drugs
Paul Wyatt
Professor of Drug Discovery and Head of the Drug Discovery Unit
The discovery of therapeutics for neglected diseases and the translation of novel biology through small molecule drug discovery