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Adam Nelson

Adam Nelson is Professor of Chemical Biology and Deputy Director of the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology at the University of Leeds; and Head of High-Throughput Molecular Discovery at the UK's Rosalind Franklin Institute.  His research team develops new approaches to enable the discovery of bioactive molecules; and exploits these approaches to discovery novel chemical tools for investigation fundamental biological mechanisms.  He collaborates extensively, particularly with biological scientists within the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology.

Adam obtained a BA in Natural Sciences from Churchill College, University of Cambridge in 1993, and his PhD (under the supervisor of Dr Stuart Warren) in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, also from Cambridge, in 1996. He undertook postdoctoral research with Prof. E. J. Thomas at the University of Manchester before joining the academic staff at the University of Leeds in 1998.  He was promoted to Professor of Chemical Biology in 2005.

Employment

Professor of Chemical Biology, University of Leeds, 2005-
Senior Lecturer in Organic Chemistry, University of Leeds, 2003-2005
Lecturer in Organic Chemistry, University of Leeds, 1998-2003

Other positions

Head of High-Throughput Molecular Discovery, Rosalind Franklin Institute, 2020-

Deputy Director, Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, 2017-

EPSRC Established Career Fellow, 2016-2022
Interim Theme Lead, Rosalind Franklin Institute, 2017-2019
Scholarship, Churchill College, Cambridge (1991-1993)

Director, Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, 2009-2011

Deputy Director, Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, 2005-2008

EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow, 2004-2009

Awards and Scholarships

European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry UCB-Ehrlich Award for Excellent in Medicinal Chemistry (2018)
RSC Corday-Morgan Medal (2007)
AstraZeneca Academic Award (2005)
EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship (2004-2009)
Pfizer Academic Award (2002)
RSC Meldola Medal (2001)
Scholarship, Churchill College, Cambridge (1991-1993)

Invited lectures at international meetings

  1. RSC 18th Lakeland Heterocyclic symposium, Grasmere, UK (2003)
  2. RSC 16th International Symposium on Synthesis in Organic Chemistry, Churchill College, Cambridge (2003)
  3. First USA-UK Organic Synthesis Workshop (2004)
  4. European Symposium of Organic Chemistry 14, Helsinki, Finland (2005)
  5. Enzymology in Como, Como, Italy (2006)
  6. Gordon Research conference in Biocatalysis, Rhode Island, USA (2008)
  7. ERA-Chemistry Flash Conference “Carbohydrates at the Interfaces of Biology, Medicine and Materials Science”, Killarney, Ireland (2008)
  8. 42nd IUPAC Congress (associated with Corday-Morgan award) (2009)
  9. ACS National meeting in “Macrocylisation as a Tool in Drug Discovery” session (2009)
  10. EuCheMS 2010, Nuremburg, Germany (2010)
  11. MedChem Europe, Munich, Germany (2010)
  12. European Chemical Biology Symposium (2010)
  13. PACIFICHEM conference of Pacific Rim countries (2010, declined)
  14. European Symposium of Organic Chemistry 17, Crete, Greece (2011)
  15. South African Chemistry Congress, Durban (2011, declined)
  16. Asian Chemical Congress, Bangkok, Thailand (2011)
  17. RSC Symposium on Drug Discovery, Singapore (2011)
  18. MedChem Europe, Munich, Germany (2013, delegated)
  19. Gordon Conference on High-Throughput Chemistry and Biology, New Hampshire, US (2013)
  20. 22nd International Isotopes Symposium, Cambridge, UK (2013)
  21. 10th German Chemical Biology meeting, Frankfurt, Germany (2015)
  22. Selectbio meeting on Discovery Chemistry, Berlin, Germany (2015, delegated)
  23. Drug Discovery satellite meeting, Tetrahedron symposium, Berlin, Germany (2015)
  24. Medicinal Chemistry meeting, Royal Netherlands Chemical Society, Utrecht, Netherlands (2016)
  25. 52nd International Conference on Medicinal Chemistry, Caen, France (2016)
  26. 6th Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress, Stockholm, Sweden (2017)
  27. Nordic Chemical Biology Meeting, Copenhagen, Denmark (2017)
  28. XXV European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry (2018; lecture associated with UCB-Ehrlich award)
  29. RSC 26th Lakeland Heterocyclic symposium, Grasmere, UK (2019)
  30. 2nd Munich-Leiden Virtual ChemBio meeting (2022)
  31. 25th Organic Chemistry Fall meeting, Norwegian Chemical Society, Oslo (2022)

Major grants (>£50k)

  1. “Strategies for asymmetric synthesis: sequential and parallel kinetic resolutions”, Grant to an institution, Leverhulme Trust, June 1999-May 2001, £55 220.
  2. “Phase transfer catalysts with a chiral anion: asymmetric reactions of cations”, EPSRC fast stream project studentship, October 1999-September 2002, total budget: £52 000.
  3. “Forced evolution of Class II aldolases: New reagents for organic synthesis”, BBSRC grant, October 1999-September 2002, £165 257 (PI: Dr Alan Berry).
  4. “A fluorimeter to underpin research in the School of Chemistry”, EPSRC, January 2001-December 2003, £135 847 (PI: Prof. Godfrey Beddard)
  5. “Regioselective synthesis of indolocarbazole alkaloids”, EPSRC project studentship, October 2000-September 2003, £53 341.
  6. “A library of chimeric aminoglycosides”, BBSRC, November 2001-October 2004,   £172 264 (Co-I: Prof. Peter Stockley)
  7. “Directed evolution of sialic acid aldolases: a combinatorial approach to sialic acid mimetics”, BBSRC, December 2001-November 2004, £191, 000 (PI: Dr Alan Berry).
  8. “Formation of a Centre for Biomolecular Interactions”, Wellcome JIF grant, October 2001-September 2004, £7,500,000 (PI: Prof Peter Stockley; nine other co-Is)
  9. “Chemical Biology of a library of apramycin analogues”, Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD studentship, October 2001-October 2004 (Co-I: Prof Peter Stockley).
  10. “Targetting the thiostrepton binding site of the ribosome”, Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD studentship, October 2002-September 2005 (Co-I: Prof Peter Stockley).
  11. “Controlling gene expression via small molecular weight effectors”, BBSRC, April 2003-October 2004, £104 147 (PI: Prof Peter Stockley).
  12. “A total synthesis of Hemibrevetoxin B: Desymmetrisation of centrosymmetric molecules by asymmetric C-C bond formation”, EPSRC, January 2004-January 2006, £120 265.
  13. “Advanced Fellowship: Diversity oriented synthesis and chemical biology of unnatural products”, EPSRC, October 2004-September 2009, £290, 000.
  14. “Diversity oriented synthesis of unnatural products”, EPSRC, December 2004-November 2007, £210,939 (Co-I: Prof Peter Stockley).
  15. “Libraries of diverse natural product-like compounds”, Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD studentship, October 2004-September 2007 (Co-I: Dr Stuart Warriner).
  16. “Glycogen synthase kinase: a critical regulator of stem cell self-renewal?”, BBSRC, March 2005-February 2008, £120 000 (linked to grant with PI Prof. Melanie Welham, University of Bath).
  17. "Developing applications of allosteric aptamers and bespoke riboswitches”, BBSRC, January 2005-December 2007, £210 000 (PI: Prof Peter Stockley).
  18. “Templated synthesis of bivalent ligands by protein dimers”, Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD studentship, October 2005-September 2008 (Co-Is: Dr Stuart Warriner and Dr Bruce Turnbull).
  19. “New bicatalytic chemistry for the synthesis of bioactive molecules”, EPSRC project studentship, £95 000 (FEC: £105 000), October 2006-September 2009 (Co-I: Dr Alan Berry).
  20. “Enzymic synthesis of complex carbohydrates using evolved enzymes”, BBSRC, £549k (FEC: £686k) , January 2007 – December 2009 (PI: Dr Alan Berry).
  21. “The Linchpin Approach in the Array Synthesis of Bioactive Ligand Scaffolds”, EPSRC £599k (FEC: £700k) plus £329k contribution (£22k cash) from GSK, March 2007 – September 2011 (PI: Dr Steve Marsden).
  22. “UK-China Virtual Laboratory for the Systems Biology of Membrane Function”, BBSRC China Partnering Award, £25k, April 2007 – March 2009 (PI: Prof Steve Baldwin with other Co-Is).
  23. “MULTISCAFFOLD: A new strategy for the diversity-oriented synthesis of alkaloid-like compounds for chemical genetic studies”, Marie Curie Incoming Fellowship, EU, £153k (€250k), June 2008-May 2010 (Fellow: Dr Sushil Maurya).
  24. “Probing the extraordinary bioactivity of macrocyclic natural products: privileged motifs or biosynthetic artefacts?”, EPSRC £430k (FEC: £538k), July 2008-June 2012 (Co-Is: Dr Paul Ko Ferrigno and Dr Stuart Warriner).
  25. “Small molecule inhibitors of RSV”, Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD studentship, £140k, Oct 2008-Sep 2012 (Co-Is: Dr John Barr and Dr Julian Hiscox).
  26. “Synthesis of diverse small molecule scaffolds”, AstraZeneca, £155k, Oct 2010-Sep 2012 (Co-I: Dr Sri Sridharan).
  27. “Protein engineering of polyketide and polyether synthesizing enzymes”, Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD studentship, £140k, Oct 2010-Sep 2014 (PI: Prof Alan Berry).
  28. “Realising lead-oriented synthesis”, EPSRC, £550k, Apr 2012 – Mar 2015  (Co-I: Prof Steve Marsden).
  29. "CHEM21: Chemical Manufacturing Methods for the 21st Century Pharmaceutical Industry”, EU IMI, Leeds share: €1.25M (of €10M) (Leeds PI: Prof John Blacker with other Co-Is).
  30. "The European Lead Factory”, EU IMI, Leeds share: €1.6M (of €80M) (Leeds Co-Is: Prof Steve Marsden and Dr Richard Foster).
  31. "Exploiting the distinctive catalysis of chemically-modified enzymes", BBSRC, £480k (PI: Prof Alan Berry).
  32. "Integrated computational and synthetic tools to drive the discovery of orthosteric protein-protein interaction inhibitors”, EPSRC, £2.7M, Feb 2016-Jan 2021.  (PI: Prof Andrew Wilson; with other Co-Is).
  33. "Autonomous Discovery of Functional Small Molecules”, EPSRC, £1.2M, Oct 2016-Sep 2021.
  34. “The realisation of fragment-oriented synthesis”, EPSRC, £550k, April 2017-March 2020 (PI: Prof Steve Marsden).
  35. “Fragment-oriented synthesis tools”, EU, £160k, March 2018-February 2020 (Co-I: Prof Steve Marsden).
  36. “Phenotype-directed emergence of unnatural products”, Leverhulme Trust, £319k, October 2018-September 2022  (Co-Is: Dr Megan Wright and Professor Terry Smith, University of St Andrews).
  37. “EUbOPEN chemical genomics consortium”, EU, £547k (to Rosalind Franklin Institute), April 2020-March 2025.
  38. “A High-throughput discovery facility for the Rosalind Franklin Institute”, EPSRC, £2.1M (to Rosalind Franklin Institute), April 2020-June 2022 (Prof. Ben Davis, Rosalind Franklin Institute).
  39. “Autonomous phenotype-directed molecular discovery”, EPSRC, £1.2M, November 2021-April 2025 (Co-Is: Dr Megan Wright, Prof. Steve Marsden, Prof. Andrew Wilson and Dr Mark Basham, Rosalind Franklin Institute).