People

Current group members

Sam Griggs graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2014 with a first class MChem degree with the third year spent on an industrial placement with Sygnature Discovery in Nottingham. He began his PhD in 2014  with Dr Paul Clarke at the University of York, workings towards the synthesis of highly substituted 2-spiropiperidines. Sam joined the Nelson/Marsden groups in July 2018 on a post-doctoral grant to work on the Fragment Orientated Synthesis project.  He then worked with Adam on high-throughput molecular discovery as a postdoctoral researcher at the Rosalind Franklin Institute.  He is currently working with Adam as a postdoc focusing on the realisation of autonomous phenotype-directed molecular discovery.

Julian Chesti carried out his BSc in chemistry at the University of Kent and graduated with first class honours in 2019. He then moved to Imperial College London for a MRes, working with Dr James Bull and Prof Alan Armstrong on sulfonimidoyl fluoride probes to target the undruggable human proteome and covalent inhibitors of the main protease of SARS-CoV-2. Julian is now carrying out his PhD with Prof Adam Nelson and Dr Megan Wright on fully functionalised libraries of covalent probes for chemical proteomics and is funded by the EPSRC.

Niamh Morris graduated with a first class BSc in Medicinal Chemistry from Trinity College Dublin in 2021. Niamh is a student on the Rosalind Franklin Institute PhD program which is funded by UKRI-EPSRC. Her project is supervised by Dr Megan Wright, Prof Adam Nelson and Dr Liang Wu (Rosalind Franklin Institute) and focuses on the autonomous phenotype-directed discovery of chemical probes for the elucidation of biological mechanisms.

Sofia Piticari obtained her MSci and PhD degrees from Imperial College London; her PhD focused on catalytic C-H functionalisation reactions for the synthesis of fragments and building blocks for drug discovery.  She is currently as a postdoc at the Rosalind Franklin Institute focusing on the realisation of autonomous phenotype-directed molecular discovery.

Stefan Lohmann is based at the Rosalind Franklin Institute, and is applying high-throughput chemistry to the discovery of small molecule probes of biological systems as part of the EUbOPEN consortium. Stefan finished his pharmacy studies at the University of Greifswald before joining the working group of Prof. D. Schade to pursue his PhD at the Universities of Greifswald and Kiel, Germany; his PhD research focused on the development and characterization of small molecules for the directed differentiation of stem cells.

Bimod Thapa is based at the Rosalind Franklin Institute, and is developing closed-loop molecular discovery approaches.  Bimod obtained MSci, MRes and PhD degrees at Huddersfield University; his PhD, under the supervision of Dr Karl Hemming, focused on new methods for heterocycle synthesis.

Chloe Atkins is a PhD student working under the supervision of Adam Nelson, Sheena Radford and Andy Wilson on the discovery and characterisation of small molecule inhibitors of amyloid formation.  She previously obtained her MNatSci degree from the University of Leeds.

Former group members

Silvie  Domann, postdoctoral researcher 1999-2002
Michael  Harding, postdoctoral researcher, 1999-2001, moved to Ultrafine (Manchester) than a biotechnology company (Australia)

Robert  Hodgson, PhD student, 1999-2001, moved to University of York.
Joanne  Holland, PhD student, 1999-2001, moved to Millennium Pharmaceuticals.
Chrissie  Carter, PhD student, 1999-2001, moved to school teaching then Royal Society of Chemistry.

Steve  Bartlett, PhD student, 2000-2003, moved to University of Bath then DSTL.
Neetu  Kaushal, PhD student, 2000-2004, moved to NPIL Pharma.
Gavin  Williams, PhD student 2000-2003 then postdoctoral researcher 2003-2006, moved to University of Wisconsin (Thorson lab).  Now a professor at North Carolina State University.

Ben  Whittaker, PhD student, 2001-2004, moved to University of Nottingham then Biofocus.
Thomas  Woodhall, PhD student, 2001-2004.
Alexis  Perry, PhD student, 2001-2004, moved to University of York then University of Sydney, now an academic at University of Exeter.
Alan  Ironmonger, PhD student, 2001-2004, moved to GSK.
Blandine  Clique, postdoctoral researcher 2001-2004, moved to Biofocus then GSK.

Mark  Anstiss, PhD student, 2002-2005.
Tamara  Belyaeva, postdoctoral researcher, 2002-2004.

Claire  Crawford, PhD student, 2003-2007, moved to GSK.
Karen  Dodd, PhD student, 2003-2007, moved to Covance.
Chris  Cordier, PhD student, 2003-2007, moved to University of Cambridge then MIT then Imperial College London.
Stephen  Worden, postdoctoral researcher, 2004-2005.

Lorna  Farnsworth, PhD student, 2004-2008.
Matthew  Edmundson, PhD student, 2004-2008.
Catherine  Joce, PhD student, 2004-2008, moved to University of Colorado then Royal Society of Chemistry then British Antarctic Survey then Cambridge Consultants.
Amanda  Bolt, PhD student, 2004-2008, moved to University of Sydney, now a clinical biochemist.

Catherine  O'Leary-Steele, PhD student, 2005-2009, moved to LHASA.
Rebecca  White, PhD student, 2005-2009.
Stuart  Leach, PhD student, 2005-2009, moved to GSK.
Teresa  Damiano, postdoctoral researcher, 2005-2008, moved to Sanofi.
Gordon  McKiernan, postdoctoral researcher, 2005-2006, moved to NPIL Pharma.
Daniel  Morton, postdoctoral researcher, 2005-2008, moved to State University of New York (Davis group).

Tom  Harman, PhD student, 2005-2009.
Jon  Shepherd, postdoctoral researcher, 2006-2008, moved to Lilly.
Louise  Horsfall, postdoctoral researcher, 2006-2009, moved to Glasgow University, now a professor at University of Edinburgh.
Ieuan  Davies, postdoctoral researcher, 2006-2009, moved to a biotechnology company.

Adrian  Fowkes, PhD student, 2006-2010, moved to LHASA.
Angela  Kinnell, PhD student, 2006-2010, now a clinical biochemist.
Sarah  Murrison, PhD student, 2006-2010, moved to GSK.
Joachim  Horn, postdoctoral researcher, 2008-2011, moved to a pharmaceutical company (Switzerland).
Jackie  Ouzman, postdoctoral researcher, 2008-2009.

Martin  Fisher, PhD student, 2007-2011, moved to University of Cambridge then Domainex.
Paolo  Tosatti, PhD student, 2007-2011, moved to University of Basel then Novartis.
Nicole  Timms, PhD student, 2007-2011, moved to Imperial Consultants, now a deputy headteacher.
Ramkrishna  Bkasa, postdoctoral researcher, 2007, moved to Institute for Cancer Therapeutics.

Adam  Daniels, PhD student, 2008-2012, now a vet.
Ho Yin (John)  Li, PhD student, 2008-2012.
Mark  Dow, PhD student, 2008-2012 then postdoctoral researcher 2012-2017, moved to AstraZeneca.
Francesco  Marchetti, postdoctoral researcher, 2008-2011.

Tom   James, PhD student, 2009-2013 then postdoctoral researcher 2016-2019, moved to AstraZeneca.
Jennifer  Stockwell, PhD student, 2009-2013, moved to Sygnature.
Charles-Hugues  Lardeau, PhD student, 2008-2012, moved to University of Vienna then AstraZeneca.
Alun  Myden, PhD student, 2009-2013, moved to LHASA.
Giorgia  Magnatti, PhD student, 2009-2013.
Sushil  Maurya, postdoctoral researcher, 2009-11.
Sophie  Gore, postdoctoral researcher, 2009-11.
Paul  MacLellan, postdoctoral researcher, 2011-2012, moved to University of Manchester then Nature Publishing Group then Royal Society of Chemistry.
Carlos  Arroniz, postdoctoral researcher, 2012, moved to Queen Mary College then Oxford University.
George  Karageorgis, PhD student 2011-15,  moved to Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology, postdoctoral researcher 2018-2020, moved to AstraZeneca.
Daniel  Foley, PhD student 2012-16, moved to Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology, now an academic at University of Canterbury (New Zealand).
Heather  Martin, postdoctoral researcher, 2010-2011.

Hannah  Kyle, PhD student, 2011-2015, moved to Avacta Life Sciences.
Claire  Windle, PhD student, 2011-2015, now a patent lawyer.
Sasha  Derrington, PhD student, 2011-2015, moved to University of Manchester.
George   Burslem, PhD student, 2011-2015, moved to Yale University, now an Assistant Professor at University of Pennsylvania.
Steven  Kane, PhD student, 2011-2015, moved to LHASA.
Richard  Doveston, postdoctoral researcher, 2012-2015, moved to Eindhoven Technical University, now an academic at University of Leicester.
Marion  Muller, postdoctoral researcher, 2014-2016.
Rajkumar  Sundaram, postdoctoral researcher, 2013-2015.
Philip  Craven, postdoctoral researcher, 2013-2016, now an academic at University of Birmingham.
Anthony  Aimon, postdoctoral researcher, 2013-2016, moved to Diamond Light Source.
Ignacio  Colomer Utrera, postdoctoral researcher, 2013-2014, moved to University of Oxford.
James  Firth, postdoctoral researcher, 2013-2017, moved to University of York.

Rong  Zhang, PhD student, 2013-2017, moved to Aptuit then Evotec.
Robert  Smith, PhD student, 2013-2017.

Joan  Mayol Llinas, PhD student, 2014-2018, moved to University of Cambridge then University of Hong Kong then Domainex.
James  Clayton, postdoctoral researcher, 2014-2016, moved to University of Oxford.
James  Howard, postdoctoral researcher, 2015-2016, moved to position in Australia.
Tom  Ackrill, postdoctoral researcher, 2015-2017, moved to Sygnature.
Christopher  Rundell, postdoctoral researcher, 2015-2016, moved to Albany Molecular Research then Sygnature.
Haitham  Hassan, postdoctoral researcher, 2015-2016, moved to University of Paris Descartes then Institute Pasteur then University of Newcastle.

Jacob  Masters, PhD student, 2015-2019, moved to 4D Pharma then WG Partners.
Bobby  Lowe, PhD student, 2015-2019, now a software engineer.
Alex  Moloney, PhD student, 2015-2019 moved to Tocris.
Emily  Turri, PhD student, 2015-2019.

Samuel Liver, PhD student, 2015-2019 then high-throughput discovery laboratoary manager (Rosalind Franklin Institute) then Exscientia.
Shiao  Chow, postdoctoral researcher, 2016-2018, moved to University of Edinburgh; now leads a research group at University of Strathclyde.
Naim  Stiti, postdoctoral researcher, 2016-2019.
Katherine  Horner, postdoctoral researcher, 2016-2017, moved to University of Manchester.

Kristina  Parashiv, PhD student, 2016-2020, now works for Keracol.
Adam  Green, PhD student, 2016-2020, moved to University of Pennsylvania then CHARM therapeutics.
Chloe  Townley, PhD student, 2016-2020, moved to Astex then Exscientia.
Ephraim  Okolo, PhD student, 2016-2020, moved to Sygnature.
Scott  Rice, PhD student, 2016-2020, moved to AstraZeneca.

Matthew  Foulkes, postdoctoral researcher, 2016-2019, moved to AstraZeneca.
Alexandre  Trindade, postdoctoral researcher, 2017-2020, moved to Pharmaron.
Som  Dutt, postdoctoral researcher, 2017-2018.

Luke  Trask, PhD student, 2017-2021, moved to AstraZeneca.
Abbie  Leggott, PhD student, 2017-2021, moved to Syngenta.
Emily  Faulkner, PhD student, 2017-2021, moved to University of Cambridge then Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust.
Andrew  Gomm, postdoctoral researcher, 2018-2020, moved to Syngenta.
Sergio  Celis, postdoctoral researcher, 2018-2020, moved to University of Manchester.
Aisha  Syed, postdoctoral researcher, 2018-2021, moved to University of Dundee.

Sannia Farooque, postdoctoral researcher, 2021-2022, moved to academic position at University of York then University of Bradford.

Chris Arter, PhD student, 2017-2021 then high-throughput discovery laboratoary manager (Rosalind Franklin Institute) then Zinsser.
Dan Francis, postdoctoral researcher, 2018-2020 and 2021-22 then Sygnature.
Jack White, PhD student 2018-2022, moved to Real Chemistry.

Alex Hindle, PhD student, 2019-2023 moved to AstraZeneca.
Jack Herbert, PhD student, 2019-2022 moved to University of Newcastle

Key collaborators

Mark Basham, Rosalind Franklin Institute

Liang Wu, Rosalind Franklin Institute

Herbert Waldmann, Sonja Sievers and Axel Pahl, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology

Terry Smith, University of St Andrews

Stuart  Warriner, University of Leeds
Steve  Marsden, University of Leeds
Andrew  Wilson, University of Leeds
Richard  Bayliss, University of Leeds
Alex  O'Neill, University of Leeds

Megan Wright, University of Leeds