Welsh School of Pharmacy

Research Interests

Member of the School's Medicinal Chemistry Research Discipline

There are three main areas of research within my group at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences:

• Cellular differentiation and proliferation - targeting specific enzymes (CYP24 and CYP26) and receptors (PPAR) directed towards the development of therapeutics for the treatment of diseases associated with hyperproliferation e.g. cancers (hormone refractive prostate cancer (HRPC) and neuroblastoma (NBL)) and psoriasis, and as tools for investigating the underlying molecular biology associated with hyperproliferation and neurogenesis.
• Steroidogenesis - targeting enzymes associated with oestrogen production (primarily CYP19/aromatase) for the development of therapeutic agents for the treatment of hromone dependent breast cancer. Other enzyme targets of interest are 17b-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (17b-HSD) and oestrone sulfatase.
• Antiinfectives - covering antibacterial (including antimycobacterial) and antiviral agents. Targets include PgP efflux, InhA and P450 enzymes (antibacterial), reverse transcriptase (RT) and DNA polymerase (antiviral - nucleoside mimetics).

Research in my group is multidisciplinary and concerns design, employing computational methods and a range of software, synthesis and in vitro biological evaluation (in-house: CYP19, CYP24, CYP26, 17b-HSD; external collaborations: PPAR, oestrone sulfatase, antiviral and antimycobacterial assays).

Teaching Profile

PH2106 Introduction To Drug Design & Synthesis

(contributes to PH1119, PH 3101, PH4105, PH4112)