Drug Discovery and Development

We work on developing new drug candidates to treat diseases that have significant unmet medical need. This includes both applied research; the discovery and development of drug candidates at specific disease targets, and basic research; the development of new methods and tools to facilitate the drug discovery process. Research outcomes are typically commercialised in spin-out companies, with numerous discoveries successfully translated to the clinic and in late-stage preclinical development. We have strong linkages to clinicians and the pharmaceutical industry. Projects are offered in the disciplines of drug design, mathematics, chemistry and biology, as related to the development of drugs for specific therapeutic targets.

Traineeships, honours and PhD projects include

• Optimisation of drug candidates for treatment of breast cancer
• Synthesizing new chemical probes to unravel biological pathways
• Expanding constrained peptide evolution strategies to facilitate drug discovery
• Antibodies with teeth, a new therapeutic modality.