Medicinal Chemistry Summer School 2024

Britta has a MSc in Pharmaceutical bioscience from The University of Gothenburg and a PhD in drug metabolism (Experimental and computational investigation of affinity and selectivity factors in CYP2D6 and CYP3A4 mediated metabolism) from The University of Gothenburg Division of Medicinal Chemistry. She has worked for AstraZeneca for 19 years first as a biotransformation expert and further on as DMPK scientific lead in both preclinical and clinical stage projects as well as preclinical project lead leading cross-functional teams in lead identification and optimization phases. Within these roles she has gained extensive knowledge in drug discovery processes, strategies to optimize drug project delivery and a broad knowledge within other scientific disciplines. During her last years at AstraZeneca she transitioned to early clinical development and since April 2021 she holds the position as Director of DMPK at Albireo Pharma supporting both early stage and clinical assets.
From her 20 years in pharma industry, she has a strong scientific background within metabolism and pharmacokinetics with extensive experience within drug discovery and has also co-authored book chapters about Metabolism and pharmacokinetic optimization in drug discovery and Design of inhaled medicines.

Dr Janet Brownlees is a Senior Director of Neuroscience Biology at the Merck Sharpe and Dohme Discovery Research Centre in London leading a team of biologists working on various mechanisms of neurodegeneration.

Janet has many years of experience in neuroscience research both in academia and drug discovery in industry previously working at GSK and LifeArc. She is an experienced Team Leader and Project Leader in neurodegeneration, pain and oncology from target identification and validation, lead optimisation to candidate selection.  She has led many academic, charity and biotech collaborations including the Dementia Consortium with Alzheimer’s Research U.K.  which involved teams of academic researchers and Pharma partners and was the Neuroscience lead at LifeArc. 

Janet completed a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry at Queen’s University followed by a PhD in peptidase activity of the endothelia cells of the blood brain barrier.  Her post-doctoral positions at King’s College London focussed on neurofilament and mitochondria dynamics, axonal transport and tau phosphorylation.  Throughout her career she has published many papers and reviews. Janet is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and currently serves on the Grant Review Board and for Alzheimer’s Research UK and the Biomedical Research Advisory Panel of the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

Dr. Jeremy Burrows is VP, Head of Drug Discovery at Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV).  He heads up the Discovery team at MMV and works with Pharmaceutical companies, Universities and other institutions to delivery new candidate drugs for antimalarial therapy, anti-relapse, prophylaxis and transmission blocking. 
Jeremy obtained a MA in chemistry and a D.Phil. in synthetic organic chemistry at Oxford University (1989-1996).   In 1997 he joined ZENECA/ AstraZeneca as a medicinal chemist working in Infection, Cardiovascular and Inflammation research at Alderley Park in the UK.  In 2005 he was seconded to Södertälje, Sweden in CNS/Pain where he led a section focused on Alzheimer’s disease.  In 2008, he joined MMV and in 2010 became Head of the Discovery team, overseeing a growing portfolio of enabling technology, screening, Hit-to-lead and Lead Optimisation projects. 
He has been involved with the delivery of numerous candidate drugs for multiple disease areas, over 25 of which have been for malaria and has published over 150 papers, book chapters and patent applications. 
He sits on the advisory and review committees for several external drug discovery collaborations within the neglected disease area including the Wellcome funded DNDi-GSK Chagas collaboration.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.  He is a co-organiser of the Wellcome Practical Aspects of Drug Discovery Course.
 

Ian Collins carried out his PhD research on the synthesis of alkaloid natural products at Cambridge University with Professor Andrew B. Holmes, and began his post-doctoral career as a medicinal chemist at The Neuroscience Research Centre of Merck Sharp & Dohme Ltd, researching new drugs to treat psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases.  Major contributions included the discovery of the first selective antagonists for the dopamine D4 receptor, the development of sub-type selective GABA-A agonists as anxiolytics, and the discovery of potent gamma-secretase inhibitors.  In 2003, he moved to lead a medicinal chemistry team in the Cancer Research UK Cancer Therapeutics Unit at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, becoming Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in 2013 and Head of Chemistry in 2018.  His research team focusses on the discovery of molecular targeted cancer drugs, with an ongoing interest in the application of structure-based design methods.  The group’s research has led to a number of molecules in clinical trials including HSP90, AKT and CHK1 inhibitors, as well as the discovery of selective chemical tool compounds to probe cancer cell biology.  Current interests include the manipulation of protein degradation in cancer cells by small molecule modulators of E3 ligases. He is a founder of the protein degradation spin out company Monte Rosa Therapeutics, Inc.  He is co-recipient of the AACR Team Science Award (2012) and the CRUK Translational Research Prize (2013).

I am currently Assistant General Counsel, Intellectual Property at AstraZeneca, where I have global overall accountability for the development and implementation of IP strategy for the Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism (CVRM) and Neuroscience therapy areas. In addition, I have global oversight of IP strategy development across all of AZ's Digital and AI activities. On reflection, my career path has been slightly unusual. Having studied law at Oxford, in the mid-1990s I qualified as a solicitor and worked for a number of years as an employment lawyer in London and Leeds. But I always had a passion for science, and so whilst still working as a lawyer, I completed a BSc in chemistry at the Open University and then left law to do a PhD in organic chemistry at Leeds. I then plunged myself fully into science, joining AZ as a medicinal chemist in 2005, later becoming both a drug discovery project and team leader. And it was whilst working in the labs at AZ that I realised you could combine law and science into a single career as a patent attorney, which led me to join AZ’s Intellectual Property team in 2010. 17 years and counting at AZ and I am still loving it!

Andy Davis gained his degree in chemistry from Imperial College, London in 1982. He undertook a PhD at the University of Huddersfield with Professor MI Page, studying the alcoholysis of penicillins as a model of their antibacterial action. This was followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at University of Kent, dissecting the energetics of ribonuclease A catalysed hydrolysis of phosphodiesters through quantitative structure-reactivity relationships. In 1988, he joined Fisons Pharmaceuticals and has spent the subsequent 35 years with Fisons/Astra/AstraZeneca applying physical organic chemistry thinking in drug discovery projects, in science, line management, portfolio management and project leadership roles, mostly in the respiratory therapeutic area.
He has published over 80 papers in peer reviewed journals including many highly cited and high impact articles, covering his key interests of physical properties, structure-guided drug design, and the application of QSAR to drug discovery.  Most notably, he introduced the leadlike paradigm to medicinal chemistry, which has become a byword for quality in lead design, and an inspiration for fragment-based drug discovery.  For the past 18 years he has been scientific organiser of the internationally regarded Royal Society of Chemistry Medicinal Chemistry Summer School, and co-editor of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s  “Handbook of Medicinal Chemistry: Principles and Practice” (2014 and second edition 2023) and its associated IPAD APP

After carrying out a PhD at the University of Bath in Crystallography, Cheryl joined Pfizer Materials Sciences at the UK Sandwich site in 2006 as a small molecule crystallographer and moved to GSK in 2019 where she leads a small and structurally focussed team within the GSK Materials Science department at Stevenage. During her time at Pfizer and GSK her primary focus has been on developing API solid forms for drug candidates, involving combining experimental studies along with the application of advanced crystallographic methods and solid-state modelling to accelerate and enhance the solid form development process.  This has also included introducing advanced crystallographic techniques to trouble-shoot complex behaviour in pharmaceutical products, such as by using synchrotron sources to analyse API and drug product single crystals, powders and dosage forms. Cheryl represents GSK on the Diamond Light Source Industrial Liaison Committee, is Bursary officer for the British Crystallographic Association and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Colin Edge is a consultant chemist with 40 years’ experience of chemical calculations and 35 years’ experience in the use of computational chemistry to support pharmaceutical research, development and manufacture.

Following a PhD and post doc in chemistry, David joined Pfizer, Sandwich in 1993 as a medicinal chemistry team leader. During his career at Pfizer, he headed-up chemistry sections working in a range of therapeutic areas including Anti-Virals and Cardiovascular. He has been directly involved in the identification of eleven development candidates from eight mechanistic classes, including four Phase 2 compounds and is co-author of over 40 publications and reviews and a named inventor on 16 patents.
 
Between 2011-2016, David took-up a part-time role with the RSC as Industry Associate. David has also set-up a consultancy company Vulpine Science and Learning and he is currently the Wellcome Trust-funded Expert in Residence at the University of Birmingham. In addition, he delivers drug discovery teaching modules at the University of Birmingham and Imperial College London as well as workshops on employability with Bristol University and Canterbury Christchurch University.

Darren Green is Head of Cheminformatics & Data Science and Senior Fellow, GlaxoSmithKline. His group specialises in the application of data analysis, machine learning and chemoinformatics methods to drug discovery. Darren also leads the Compound Collection Enhancement strategy for GSK.
Darren has a PhD in Theoretical Chemistry from the University of Manchester and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Simon is Sygnature’s founder and Chief Executive Officer. He is an entrepreneur and industry veteran with 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical sector.  As well as founding Sygnature in 2004, he was an early stage investor and Director of Peak Proteins Ltd (now acquired by Sygnature), and a cofounder of Step Pharmaceuticals, a clinical stage biotech based in France. 

Simon began his research career as a medicinal chemist at AstraZeneca and later moved to OSI Pharmaceuticals where he was part of the senior leadership team. He has been engaged in the full spectrum of drug discovery programmes – from hit finding, to candidate selection. Simon has a BSc (Hons.) in chemistry and a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Nottingham, and undertook post-doctoral research at the University of Pittsburgh.

Mike Kelly is a preclinical safety, disposition, and translational science consultant, supporting biotech, small and medium pharmaceutical companies, and academic drug discovery enterprises. Mike is also a visiting lecturer in the School of Life and Medical Sciences at the University of Hertfordshire (teaching pharmacology, drug discovery, drug safety and toxicology) and a course tutor for the British Association of Pharmaceutical Physicians and the British Pharmacological Society. He has worked in preclinical development since the mid-80’s in academia, CRO, biotech and large pharma.

Mike has supported a wide range of treatment modalities (small molecules, vaccines and adjuvants, biopharm, oligos, medical devices and orphan drugs) and in multiple therapeutic areas (immuno-inflammatory, infectious disease, respiratory, metabolic and GI, oncology, psychiatric and neurology).

Dr Ruth Lock has over 20 years of experience in DMPK and Clinical Pharmacology within the Pharmaceutical Industry, gained whilst working with UK-based companies Servier, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Novartis, and Takeda.  She has supported projects through all stages of Research & Development, including post-marketing commitments and established products.  She has experience of both small molecule and biologic drugs and has experience across a wide range of therapeutic areas in which she can also provide specialist DMPK and Clinical Pharmacology expertise in inhaled drug development. In addition to her DMPK discovery background, Ruth has a broad knowledge of DMPK and Clinical Pharmacology development packages to support global regulatory submissions. Whilst working in Pharma, Ruth was passionate about the development of high quality, innovative therapies for children and was a member of a global paediatric network at one of her former companies. Ruth is familiar with in silico, in vitro and in vivo ADME assays and methodologies and has expertise in PBPK modelling.
Aucuba Sciences Ltd was founded by Ruth in 2016, specialising in DMPK and Clinical Pharmacology expertise and knowledge for both drug discovery and development programmes. Based in London, she assists in the resolution of drug discovery and development challenges and works with a range of clients throughout the UK, Europe and the USA.
Ruth is currently a tutor and lecturer for the Drug Metabolism Discussion Group (DMDG) Pharmacokinetics course. Past positions also include Honorary secretary, officer, and committee member for the Society for Medicines Research (SMR), a multi-disciplinary society for all those engaged in drug research.

After training as a synthetic organic chemist at Oxford (BA), City (PhD) and Sussex (Post-Doc) universities I worked as a medicinal chemist in R&D in a range of industries for over 25 years, in scientific & project leadership roles and as a team manager. The companies were Glaxo, Shell, AstraZeneca and Medimmune in the pharma, biotech and crop protection sectors. My work has led to over 60 publications, patents and conference presentations. The therapy areas I have worked in have covered antimicrobial, antiviral, inflammation & respiratory (COPD, Asthma, RA, OA), inhaled and oral drugs and small peptides for metabolic diseases. The biological targets have included both receptors and enzymes such as GPCR & chemokine antagonists and lipase & protease inhibitors. The medicinal chemistry campaigns that I have led (in both LI and LO) have resulted in some 10 candidate drugs being identified for clinical development (several in Phase II). Since 2012 I have worked as an independent drug discovery consultant through my own company (Medsyndesign Ltd) and I have consulted for a range of small companies and universities in several disease areas (CV, oncology and injectables).

Dr. Lutz Mueller started his career with moving into genetic toxicology in 1981 when starting to work on his Diploma in biology. This means that he has accrued in the meantime about 40 years of experience in safety assessment of medicines. From 1989 on, he has been the head of the department of Mutagenesis and Carcinogenesis at the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices in Berlin, Germany. In 2000, he moved into industry to create a group of entrepreneurs working on “In silico Safety and Metabolism” at Novartis in Basel. While at Novartis, he began to realize the power of working with project leader responsibilities in Oncology. In late 2004, he moved to F. Hoffmann-La Roche into the role of a toxicology project leader and has ever increased his area of expertise in toxicology and safety assessment ever since. Small molecules, antisense modalities, biologics and vector-based gene therapy products for new medicines for human disease, he has worked on them all. He has also served as liaison between safety assessment and research at Roche for neuroscience, ophthalmology and rare diseases establishing and tightening the close relationships between research and development in drug discovery. While he has contributed at Roche to move many molecules into man and further along the clinical development phase even into approval, the big reward came in Mid 2020 with the approval for the world’s first small molecule mRNA splice modifier, risdiplam (BPS drug of the year award 2023)). He has been a major driving force behind the fast R&D process on this medicine named Evrysdi to help patients with spinal muscular atrophy.

Lutz Mueller is currently chairing the corporate Translational Safety Committee of Roche’s Pharma Research and Early Development function.

His internal and external reputation is evidently documented with the title of “distinguished scientist” and supported by his contribution to more than 100 peer reviewed publications and book chapters. Moreover, he left his mark in the international contribution in the ICH guideline process since 1991, the inception of the ICH process. He chaired the ICH Guidance process in Genotoxicity and was intimately involved in various ICH safety and multidisciplinary guidelines. Still today, he is representing EFPIA on ICH M7, the “mutagenic impurities” guideline. He also earned his reputation being a frequent presenter at international conferences. He gives training course at various health authorities around the world. He is Guest Professor for Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Lisbon, Portugal.

Dr Emma Rivers is a Director of Medicinal Chemistry within the Hit Discovery Department at AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK. She leads a team of chemists and is responsible for the DNA-encoded library screening platform which delivers hits and lead series for projects across a wide range of targets and therapeutic areas, such as Oncology, Cardiovascular, and Respiratory. Following a MChem in chemistry at Durham University and a PhD in the synthesis of heterocycles at Imperial College London, Emma joined GSK as a medicinal chemist within the Neuroscience team. There she worked on both hit to lead and lead optimisation programs at the research site in Singapore for 8 years before joining AstraZeneca, where she has worked for the past 9 years, primarily on lead generation approaches for early-stage drug discovery projects.  

Simon Ward is currently the Sêr Cymru Professor in Translational Drug Discovery and Director of the Medicines Institute at Cardiff University.

Simon has a wide-ranging experience from over 25 years of drug discovery in senior roles in major pharmaceutical companies, biotech & academia (GlaxoSmithKline, BioCrea, Knoll Pharmaceuticals, Vernalis, Chiroscience, University of Sussex, Cardiff University). He has led multidisciplinary project teams for a wide range of diseases. Within academia, he has successfully secured over £50M funding to lead a portfolio of drug discovery and clinical development projects. He also has considerable experience of commercial deal making and has multiple additional roles in biotech companies.

Simon is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and is an internationally recognised expert in medicinal chemistry leading to many external roles on scientific advisory boards, charity and government funding panels and scientific societies.