We look forward to welcoming Harriet Stanway-Gordon to the Kawamura group in April to start her EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship and start on her journey to develop an independent research career.
Harriet who is a SNES Medicinal Chemistry PhD student was recently awarded the prestigious EPSRC doctoral prize fellowship. Harriet was supervised by Prof. Mike Waring where she was developing new methodology to synthesis DNA-encoded macrocycles.
The EPSRC Doctoral Prize gives Harriet the opportunity to apply the methodology to synthesise encoded libraries of cyclic peptide small molecule hybrids. Due to
their unique properties, these compounds have the potential to act as drugs for thus far intractable protein classes, opening up novel opportunities for new medicines.
Harriet said “I am thrilled to have been awarded the EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship and am very excited to have this opportunity – I can’t wait to get started on the project”.
The project aims to synthesise libraries of cyclic peptide small molecule hybrids in very high throughput with DNA-encoding, which could provide a rapid means to identify active compounds for protein targets that could be optimised into potential medicines.
Harriet joined Newcastle University from Imperial College, to study for a Drug Chemistry MSc, part time whilst caring for her young daughter. She then stayed on for her PhD.
Many congratulations to Harriet, her skills and talents will be a great addition to our group.