Research Interest

Kinases Enzymes

Kinase enzymes that catalyse the transfer of a phosphate group to the hydroxyl group of a substrate protein are key enzymes in signalling pathways that drive cell proliferation which are often de-regulated in tumour cells. We are involved in the search for novel, small molecule kinase inhibitors in a variety of ways.

We are working on drug discovery projects targetting particular kinases using all the tools at our disposal. Structure-based drug design in which we obtain X-ray crystallographic structures of our molecules bound to the kinase of interest plays an important role in this work allowing us to design more potent and/or more selective small molecules.  

In addition, we are working on the synthesis of novel chemical scaffolds which possess the structural features to bind to and inhibit kinases.