Professor Ian Gilbert
FMedSci FRSE FRSC
Professor/Head of the Drug Discovery Unit
Drug Discovery Unit, School of Life Sciences
Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery, School of Life Sciences

Contact
Websites
Research
Medicinal Chemistry
I am a medicinal chemist and my research interests are in the design and synthesis of potential drugs. The mainstay of my work is synthetic medicinal chemistry as part of the Drug Discovery Unit (DDU). Where possible we make extensive use of molecular modeling to guide our synthetic efforts. I have a particular interests in the following aspects of drug discovery:
Neglected diseases such as human African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis and malaria.
Chemical validation of drug targets, including novel targets for which there is little or no precedence for drug discovery.
Novel approaches to and paradigms for drug discovery.
Mode of action studies and target identification.
I am Head of Chemistry in the DDU. Our main focuses are on neglected diseases and novel drug targets. The neglected diseases we are tackling are malaria, tuberculosis and the kinetoplastid diseases. We use both target-based approaches and phenotypic approaches (whole parasite screening). We have had particular success in validating the enzyme N-myristoyltransferase as a drug target in human African trypanosomiasis, and in identifying and optimising phenotypic hits. In our novel targets area, we aim to validate novel areas of biology as potential drug targets.
Stories

News
The Drug Discovery Unit (DDU) is delighted to announce that Professor Ian Gilbert has been appointed to be the Head of the Drug Discovery Unit

Press release
A parasitic infection that affects millions of people around the world is to be targeted by a £2.5 million drug discovery programme at the Universities of Dundee, Aberystwyth and Cardiff.
News
Review of the Year 2021 took place virtually today with the former Interim Dean, Inke Näthke sharing the highlights of activity within the School from 2021
Research interests
Design and synthesis of potential therapeutic agents
Awards
Award | Year |
---|---|
Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences | 2021 |
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh | 2020 |