Funding

EPSRC CASE Competition Studentship in partnership with Exscentia Ltd, offering the award of fees, together with a tax‑free maintenance grant of £19,237 and an additional Top‑Up of £3,300 per year for 3.5 years. Training and support will also be provided.

Lead Supervisor’s full name & email address

Professor Adam Nelson

Co-supervisor name(s)

Professor Steve Marsden

Project summary

Drug discovery pipelines are driven by iterative cycles in which molecules are designed, synthesised, purified and tested. A remarkably limited toolkit of reactions dominates discovery, which has contributed to the historic uneven exploration of chemical space, and has tended to focus attention on molecules with sub‑optimal properties. Many reactions that would be potentially valuable for drug discovery have recently emerged that could complement this established reaction toolkit.

The main hindrance in harnessing a broader reacti...