Drug Discovery Weekend
Organizers and trainers: Wellcome Centre for Anti-Infectives Research training team, Drug Discovery Unit (DDU), University of Dundee.
Dr. Cedric Graebin
Cedric is a medicinal chemist within the Drug Discovery Unit (DDU), University of Dundee. He was a Professor of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro for 12 years. Cedric joined the DDU in 2022 and his focus is on the training and the dissemination of drug discovery related knowledge to scientists working in the field, and in the design and development of anti-infective agents for tropical and neglected diseases.
Dr. Mary Wheldon
Mary is a medicinal chemist within the Kinetoplastid Portfolio in the Drug Discovery Unit (DDU). She contributes towards the work to look for new treatments for Chagas Disease. Mary has been in the DDU for the past 7 years and has also worked in the Innovative Targets Portfolio, working on a range of diseases including Alzheimer’s, Pancreatic Cancer and Parkinson’s. Before joining the DDU, Mary carried out a post-doc at University College London, and completed her PhD at the University of York under Prof Peter O’Brien working on new compounds for Fragment Based Drug Discovery.
Laura Simpson
Laura is the DMPK representative for the Malaria and Tuberculosis programmes at the Drug Discovery Unit in Dundee. She has greater than 20 years’ experience in the drug discovery industry, and prior to joining the DDU in 2020, had spent the majority of her career in the Animal Health sector. During her early career, Laura gained extensive hands-on experience as a lab-based scientist running in vitro metabolism experiments, developing HPLC-MS methods, and analysing varied biological matrices.
Description
In this 8-hour course delivered in two 4-hour sessions, the participants will take a hit compound up to the pre-clinical candidate stage by choosing carefully which strategies and which molecules they will work on. With a combination of short lectures and practical workshop sessions, the teams will learn how to select a hit compound, which tools and strategies they can use to optimise the molecules, and how to handle multiple sets of data (potency, physicochemical properties, and pharmacokinetics). The goal is to have a suitable candidate by the end of the weekend.
Target Audience
Researchers (pursuing or having a Ph.D. degree) from chemical and/or biological sciences currently working in drug discovery projects. The course will be delivered in English.
Number of Available Slots
30 (room Rasa).