Charlotte completed her MChem in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Surrey in 2021. Whilst there she spent her Industrial Placement year within GlaxoSmithKline working within the Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK) department with a project focusing on developing a quantitative NMR assay. Additionally, she gained experience in Polymerisation-Induced Self-Assembly (PISA) of polymers during a summer research internship provided by the RSC. For her master’s project she then focused on the synthesis of a novel antimalarial, supervised by Dr Daniel Whelligan. Outside the lab, Charlotte can often be found running, playing board games with friends, or enjoying a good book!

Matthew completed his MChem at the University of Liverpool in 2021. He conducted his final year research on the development of rhodium-based catalysts for hydrogen auto-transfer methylation reactions under the supervision of Professor Jianliang Xiao and also received the Unilever Prize for an excellent performance in chemistry. Having completed his year in industry developing small molecule entities in the Medicinal Chemistry Department at GSK, he has developed a keen interest for the interface between chemistry and biology, specifically the probing of biological systems and designing compounds to target them. Matthew enjoys pursuing outdoor activities such as climbing and walking and participates in various sports such as football and badminton. He enjoys socialising with friends, particularly over a good bottle of red wine or watching a good sci-fi film.

Jacob read for an MSci Natural Sciences (Biology and Chemistry) at Durham University, graduating in 2021. His research experience is in both preclinical and clinical drug development, having previously worked characterising novel CFTR modulators and on an antifungal clinical trial. Jacob is most passionate about rational drug discovery and medicinal chemistry, something he explored during his master’s year. Co-supervised by Prof. Ehmke Pohl (Structural Biology) and Prof. Andy Whiting (Chemistry), Jacob designed and synthesised selective activators of the non-genomic retinoid response. Outside of the lab, Jacob enjoys cycling and sings for Trinity College Chapel Choir.

Annabel has an MChem degree in Chemistry for Drug Discovery with Industrial Placement from the University of Bath. She did an industrial placement at GSK Stevenage in DMPK science, where she was involved in the automation of in vitro assays using physical and computational techniques. Her master’s project was conducted under the supervision of Professor Carmen Domene, which was a biophysical/computational chemistry investigation into the interaction between cholesterol and the protein TRPV1 using molecular dynamics simulations. She has also taken part in several summer research projects in synthetic chemistry in the department of Pharmacology at Bath with Professor Mike Threadgill and Dr Lorenzo Caggiano, and in computational chemistry with Professor Carmen Domene. She enjoys programming, statistics and data analysis, and working with proteins. Outside of chemistry, she also enjoys archery, cycling, and cooking.

Disha completed her BSc Honours at the top of her class from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. She was awarded the Khorana scholarship to research at the protein nanowires lab with professor Nikhil Malvankar at Yale University. Her research experience has been primarily in utilising chemical principles to address problems in biomedical engineering. As a part of Stanford University’s frugal science project, she attempted to develop a low-cost blood glucose monitoring device for diabetes - using a smartphone-based microscope. At IIT Delhi, she worked on improving the anti-microbial properties of silk fibroin-based biomedical devices at professor Neetu Singh’s lab. She also worked with stimuli-responsive polymers for ‘bio-origami’ applications in tissue engineering. Outside of her academic pursuits, Disha runs a non-profit organisation that ’wo’mentors young girls in India from underprivileged backgrounds to pursue STEM careers. She is also an avid reader, a keen debater and trained pianist.

Frank completed his MChem degree at Merton College, Oxford in 2021. During his final year project, he worked in the group of Professor Véronique Gouverneur to investigate novel methods for the synthesis of radiotracers for Positron Emission Tomogrophy (PET). He has also completed a summer project in the group of Professor Edward Anderson on the synthesis of bicyclo[1.1.1]pentane analogues of various pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, in order to study differences in their pharmacokinetics. Outside of the lab, Frank enjoys gardening and punting around Oxford.

Hannah completed her MChem in Medicinal and Biological Chemistry at The University of Edinburgh in 2021. During her final year she undertook an industrial placement at Hoffmann - La Roche in Basel, Switzerland where she joined the Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development (pRED) team. Hannah's work focussed on small molecule inhibition of neuroinflammatory targets, which formed the basis of her Master's thesis. Hannah also participated in a summer research exchange with Tianjin University, China where she synthesised cyclic iminoglyoxylate precursors for unnatural amino acids (UAAs). Outside of chemistry, Hannah enjoys cooking, climbing and hiking.

Keefe received his BA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge in 2020, specialising in chemistry in his last year. After graduating, he completed a placement at the Experimental Drug Development Centre (A*STAR) in Singapore, where he worked on medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. He is currently an associate student in the Chemistry and Cells programme. Apart from chemistry, he has a keen interest in food and wine.