Centre for Chemistry and Drug Discovery

Developing next generation precision drugs inspired by nature

Centre research summary: We are focused on the design and discovery of new medicines to treat the world’s greatest disease challenges, including cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, inflammatory and respiratory diseases, neurological disorders, and to relieve chronic pain and suffering.  This work also supports the development of  new medicines for animal health and eco-friendly insecticides to protect agriculture. 

We develop new clues for drug design by: 

• identifying mechanisms of disease development and drug action. 

• discovering biologically active natural products from plants, animals, and microbes in soil. 

• studying structures and actions of disease-causing proteins as potential drug targets.

• creating new technologies to drive the discovery and development of drugs, growing medicines in plants and microalgae, and monitor drug candidates and their targets in disease.

Our multidisciplinary team has broad and deep experience in  Chemistry, Biochemistry, Molecular and Structural Biology, Pharmacology, Immunology, translation and commercialisation and integrates this to define the processes that control life, ageing, disease and death and use this information to guide the development of new treatments. 

The Centre has translated its research into drugs in clinical trials, insecticides for agricultural applications, and animal baits for pest control.