Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery (BCDD)

Improving our understanding of pathogen biology and transforming drug discovery for both infectious and non-infectious diseases; making the previously undruggable, druggable.

test tubes in lab environment

We target lethal and debilitating pathogens, address urgent unmet patient needs, and deliver new medicines; working in a multi-disciplinary, highly collaborative and well-resourced research environment. Delivery is enabled through technological innovation, research excellence, and partnerships with research and development organisations and pharmaceutical companies.

World-leading centres and teams

BCDD incorporates the following world-leading centres and teams:
 

Core strengths

Cross-cutting core strengths and innovation areas include:

  • drug-resistance
  • chemical biology
  • glycobiology
  • medicinal chemistry
  • gene expression control mechanisms
  • genetic manipulation
  • high-throughput screening
  • proteomics
  • molecular interactions
  • imaging
  • informatics

Infectious diseases

Infectious diseases we target include:

  • African trypanosomiasis
  • leishmaniasis
  • Chagas disease
  • malaria
  • cryptosporidiosis
  • cryptococcosis
  • schistosomiasis
  • tuberculosis

Training and mentoring are embedded at all levels. Several highly successful spinouts and start-ups have attracted major investment.

Read about our 2021 impact case studies

Head of Division

Deputy Head of Division

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Dr Manu De Rycker

  • Principal Investigator/Senior Lecturer, Head of Biology, Deputy Head of DDU and BCDD

  • Drug discovery for infectious diseases, development of cell-based screening cascades and understanding of persisters in infectious diseases

    [email protected]

    +44 (0)1382 386211

Academic staff

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Dr Beatriz Baragana

  • Principal Investigator, Apicomplexan Portfolio Manager

  • Delivering effective and safe treatments for malaria, cryptosporidiosis and schistosomiasis exploiting novel biological pathways.

    [email protected]

    +44 (0)1382 386059

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Professor Alessio Ciulli

  • Professor of Chemical and Structural Biology and Director of the Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation

  • Chemical and Structural Biology of Targeted Protein Degradation

    [email protected]

    +44 (0)1382 386230

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Dr Laura Cleghorn

  • Principal Investigator (Reader), Tuberculosis Portfolio Manager

  • Identifying novel candidates to potentially become new therapies for Tuberculosis (TB)

    [email protected]

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Dr Peter Cossar

  • Principal Investigator

  • Developing chemical tools to tackle key questions in molecular biophysics and chemical biology

    [email protected]

    +44 (0)1382 385018

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Professor Ian Gilbert

  • Professor/Head of the Drug Discovery Unit and Roscoe Chair in Drug Discovery

  • Design and synthesis of potential therapeutic agents

    [email protected]

    +44 (0)1382 386240

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Professor Marcus Lee

  • Professor of Parasite Molecular Genetics

  • Understanding antimalarial drug resistance and the validation of new drug targets

    [email protected]

    +44 (0)1382 383059

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Professor Kevin Read

  • Professor of Quantitative Pharmacology and Head of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics

  • Drug discovery, lead optimisation and preclinical development

    [email protected]

    +44 (0)1382 388688

Associates

Emeritus

Key contacts

Name Role Email
Jamie Curran Lab Manager [email protected]
Nancy Kirk and Fiona Ross  Lab Manager [email protected]
Susan Ross Senior Technical Support [email protected] & [email protected]
  PA to Prof Alessio Ciulli [email protected]
  Secretary [email protected]
Aaron Hendry Technician [email protected] & [email protected]

Publications

View Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery publications

Stories

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