Stephen Brand

What I do at MMV:

I provide medicinal chemistry support and leadership to academic and industrial drug discovery project teams to help them deliver high-quality preclinical candidates. I also provide pharmacometrics support and training to our discovery teams during lead optimisation, particularly in the use of MMVSola to maximize their chances of achieving the challenging single dose criteria for malaria treatment or chemoprotection.

Why I work at MMV:

I’ve always been passionate about drug discovery in a global health context because of the potential to improve the lives of at-risk populations. Working in partnership with my colleagues at MMV and our network of discovery collaborators gives me the opportunity to contribute to the eradication of a very serious disease, as well as continuing my scientific development in a stimulating and innovative 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 team leader at Dundee Drug Discovery where I led a portfolio of neglected disease projects. This gave me the opportunity to collaborate with academic and industrial partners, experience a wide variety of drug discovery strategies and technologies, and successfully deliver preclinical candidates for Leishmaniasis and cancer. Prior to this, at Celltech and UCB, I gained experience in immunology programmes and contributed to the discovery of Zaurategrast. I started my training as a synthetic chemist, gaining my degree and PhD from Leeds University, followed by postdoctoral studies in natural product synthesis at Ohio State University and Glasgow University.

Ask me about:

Synthetic and medicinal chemistry approaches to solving drug discovery problems, as well as human pharmacokinetic and dose prediction methodology. Also ask me about adventure sports – in my free time I will mostly be found mountain biking, trail running or swimming in the Swiss mountains.