Following my MSci and PhD in Birmingham, I moved to Canada to undertake a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Ottawa working on cancer and neurodegenerative drug development projects. Since then I have taken up a Postdoctoral Training Fellowship at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London where I work in an interdisciplinary team developing novel therapeutic tools to help fight cancer.

My day-to-day typically includes team meetings to share project progress and develop future strategy, lab-based work synthesising target compounds, data analysis and general lab responsibilities.

What is the best thing about what you are doing now?

The best thing about my job is that i’m utilising my expertise developed throughout my PhD to contribute to pressing research aims whilst also continuing to develop my knowledge of new research fields. The ICR is a diverse research institute meaning I get to work in a large project team consisting of computational chemists, crystallographers, assay scientists, cancer biologists and bioinformaticians all of whom help drive our on-going aim of developing novel, robust cancer therapies.

What made you interested in your current role?

My Masters and PhD work focused on the synthesis of biologically active targets, however toward the end of my PhD I began to take a more active role in the evaluation of the drugs I has synthesised. This sparked a real enthusiasm to develop my skills further outside of ‘just chemistry’. 

How has your career developed since graduating from the University of Birmingham?

I am in the early stages of my career but my experiences in Birmingham pointed me in the right direction and towards an area of research I find very interesting. After completing my PhD in Birmingham I moved to Canada to pursue a Postdoctoral Fellowship position in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Ottawa. There I was offered the opportunity to develop my own hypotheses, synthesise biologically active compounds and then be directly involved in the initial testing process. Since then I have returned to the UK take up a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Cancer Research where I work on developing novel targeted cancer therapies. Looking forward, I intend to pursue positions that will allow me to further expand my knowledge and understanding of medicinal chemistry whilst contributing to important research aims. 

What motivates you?

My main source of motivation is derived from an innate curiosity of the world around me; I’m fascinated by figuring out how things work. My work in the field of medicinal chemistry allows me to apply my knowledge of chemistry to understand how diseases progress and how we can chemically intervene to prevent them causing harm. Another source of motivation for me is the work that I do could one day contribute toward disease prevention and the saving lives.