Angela is Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the Departments of Chemistry and Pharmacology at the University of Oxford. In 2007 she was awarded a prestigious Research Councils’ UK Fellowship in Medicinal Chemistry jointly between the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacology. Her work lies at the interface of Chemistry, Biology and Medicine and aims to discover new small molecules and mechanisms to manipulate cell fate and translate them into therapeutic agents, particularly for degenerative diseases and cancer. Angela has realised several successful multidisciplinary research collaborations, including identifying small molecules to upregulate utrophin for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, developing novel inhibitors and activators of developmental signaling pathways and new anti-cancer agents. In 2016, Angela was named as a ‘Rising Star’ in the ‘BioBeat 50 Movers and Shakers in BioBusiness’ report celebrating 50 outstanding women business leaders who are recognised for their contributions to global health innovation. In 2020 she was awarded a 2021 Harrington Rare Disease Scholar award in recognition of, and in support of, her work on developing a therapy for DMD.

Frances obtained her BSc from Imperial College London (Zoology) and her PhD from the University of Bath, UK. She was a post-doctoral fellow at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis, USA. She was a Lister Institute Senior Research Fellow and is currently Professor of Biochemistry and Pharmacology at the University of Oxford. Her main research interests include the biology and pathobiology of glycosphingolipids and lysosomal disorders. Her research led to the development of miglustat for the treatment of glycosphingolipid lysosomal storage diseases. Prof. Platt was awarded the Alan Gordon Memorial Award and the Horst Bickel Award for advances in metabolic disease therapy. She was elected a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2011 and was the recipient of a Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award in 2013. In 2016 she became a Wellcome Trust Investigator in Science. She became Head of the Department of Pharmacology in 2020.

Tom obtained his Master’s degree in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Leeds, where he subsequently stayed to complete a PhD in Biochemistry. Tom then moved to Imperial College London as a post-doctoral researcher in Chemical Biology, where he worked on a range of drug discovery projects in the group of Prof. Ed Tate. In 2020, Tom was awarded a Career Development Fellowship to join the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford and start his independent group in Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology. The Lanyon-Hogg group’s research involves the identification and development of biologically active small-molecules for a range of disease states, with a primary focus on identifying compounds to combat antimicrobial resistance. The group also employs chemical probes and bioorthogonal chemistry to provide new insights into fundamental biological questions.

Tracey is the programme manager to the EPSRC redOx⇌KCL and the Wellcome Trust Chemistry in Cells DPhil programmes in the Department of Chemistry. Previously she was programme manager for OxStem-funded research programmes in the labs of Professor Angela Russell. Tracey joined the Department of Chemistry in 2013 as a project manager/administrator for the European-FP7-funded Innovative Doctoral Programme (IDP) entitled 'Oxford Innovative Organic Synthesis for Cancer Research (OxIOSCR)' with Professors Jeremy Robertson, Angela Russell, Tim Donohoe and David Hodgson. Previously she worked as a business planning consultant for new and young businesses and had established Communities in Business Ltd to deliver business education and training and to support community enterprises. Tracey completed her PhD in 2003 under the supervision of Professor Susan Brooks at Oxford Brookes University to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the aberrant synthesis of N-acetyl-galactosaminylated glycoproteins in metastatic breast cancer cells.