What medicinal chemists need to know about biology II

Dr Alex Vugler

UCB

I graduated from Sheffield University with a degree in Pharmacology in 1995. Soon after, I joined a very busy department within UCB where I completed my MSc in Pharmacology & Toxicology, followed by my PhD. I am a Senior Principal Scientist with over 20 years of experience working on both NBE and NCE projects with a focus on inflammation and autoimmune diseases. As a Project Pharmacologist, I have been responsible for establishing numerous in vivo models, screening cascades and leading the strategy to support high priority projects as they progress towards the clinic.

Dr Beth Williamson

AstraZeneca

Beth graduated with a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Liverpool, UK and began her career at Xenogesis, Nottingham before joining Vertex, Oxford and then leading a team in the DMPK group at Evotec, Oxford. Beth’s work has focussed on DDIs and ADME assay optimisation and validation within drug discovery, particularly to address bespoke questions. Beth has published more than 15 papers and contributed to 2 book chapters. Beth is now part of the Early Oncology, DMPK group at AstraZeneca, representing DMPK on projects throughout discovery and development.

Dr Chris Morrow

AstraZeneca

Chris has worked in different aspects of cancer drug discovery since completing his PhD in 2004. Initially working as a post-doc and assistant group leader at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, he focused on using targeted anti-cancer agents to better understand cancer biology. He moved to AstraZeneca in 2016 and has since worked as lead bioscientist and translational medicine lead on camizestrant (AZD9833), the next generation oral selective estrogen receptor degrader. He has been on this project since lead optimisation, an exciting ride as the drug is now in phase 3 clinical trials.

Dr Paul Walker

Cyprotex

Paul Walker is the Head of Toxicology at Cyprotex where he is responsible for the R&D strategy, operations and study management performed within the Toxicology Group.
Paul obtained his Ph.D. from King’s College London in Molecular Toxicology and was awarded the Tadion-Rideal prize for molecular sciences (2004).
Paul joined Cyprotex in 2010 with his research interests focused on the role of drug metabolism in drug toxicity and in vitro assays to predict toxicity in early drug discovery. His team are focused on: 1. Developing and evaluating novel cellular systems to improve the prediction of toxicity. 2. Evaluate current industry utilised mechanistic endpoint assays in predicting toxicity. 3. The importance of drug metabolism and appropriate cellular models in our mechanistic understanding of toxicity. 4. Integrating in vivo exposure in interpretation of in vitro data, and 5. Modelling approaches combining ADME, PK, Omic technologies and in vitro Tox assays to predict toxicity.

Dr Sarah Skerratt

MSD

Sarah is an organic chemist by training, conducting her PhD with Professor J C Anderson at the University of Nottingham before undertaking postdoctoral studies with Professor P A Wender at Stanford University as a visiting Fulbright Scholar. Sarah began her industrial career as a medicinal chemist at Pfizer, UK and has subsequently taken on roles at Convergence and Vertex. She is an active member of the UK Chemistry community, with a long-standing interest in teaching and enabling the next generation of scientists. Sarah is currently the head of the MSD UK Chemistry at MSD’s London Discovery Centre.

Dr Simon Peace

GSK

BSc Chemistry and PhD with Jim Anderson at the University of Sheffield

Joined GlaxoWellcome in 1998 and has since led several medicines discovery programmes including identification numerous clinical candidates. Selected as a GSK Fellow in 2016

Current role is Scientific Director in the medicinal chemistry group at GlaxoSmithkline, Stevenage
Other commitments include training and sharing of science such as mentoring scientists inside and outside GSK, organising scientific conferences and events.