What I do at MMV:

I help identify the high quality preclinical candidates of the future. I provide medicinal chemistry support and leadership to a number of academic and industrial project teams working on target-based and phenotypic approaches to antimalarial drug discovery.

Why I work at MMV:

I’m passionate about drug discovery because of the potential to improve people’s lives, particularly those who are much less fortunate. Working in partnership with my colleagues at MMV and our network of collaborators gives me the opportunity to eradicate a very serious disease, as well as continuing my scientific development in a stimulating environment.

More about me:

I joined the MMV discovery team in 2017 following a period of eighteen years in pharma, biotech and academic drug discovery environments. Previously I was a medicinal chemist at Dundee Drug Discovery where I led a diverse portfolio of neglected disease projects. This gave me the opportunity to collaborate with different academic and industrial partners, explore a wide variety of drug discovery strategies and technologies and successfully deliver preclinical candidates for Leishmaniasis and cancer. Prior to this, at Celltech (UCB) I gained experience in cancer and immunology programmes and contributed to the discovery of Zaurategrast. I started my training as a synthetic chemist, gaining my PhD from Leeds University, followed by postdoctoral studies with Professor Leo Paquette and Professor Philip Kocienski in natural product synthesis.

Ask me about:

Synthetic and medicinal chemistry approaches to solving drug discovery problems as well as drug-likeness and developability parameters – love them or loathe them. Also ask me about adventure sports – I love doing triathlons and swim-run events and will mostly be found biking, hiking, running or swimming in the mountains.