4.06 - Thiazoles
References (0)
Cited by (0)
Beining Chen graduated from China Pharmaceutical University with a B.Sc., in 1984 and an M.Sc. in 1987, both in medicinal chemistry. She obtained a Ph.D in organic chemistry in 1991 from University of Glasgow under the supervision of Professor Gordon Kirby. After spending three years working for Professor Sir Jack Baldwin at University of Oxford and seven years of employment by Cranfield, she joined Department of Chemistry at University of Sheffield as a lecturer in medicinal chemistry in 2003.
The main focus of her research is on the design, synthesis, and screening of biologically active heterocyclic compounds including thiazoles. Over the last three years, she has been intensively involved in the development of therapeutic compounds against acquired variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD, the human form of mad cow disease), a member of a family of fatal neurodegenerative diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) or prion diseases for which there are no therapeutic drugs currently available. The project was funded by the Department of Health (DoH).
William Heal was born in Norwich, UK, in 1976. He was awarded a B.Sc. with honors in chemistry in 1998 and an M.Sc. in chemical process (research and development) the following year from the University of Liverpool (UK). He stayed on in Liverpool to complete a Ph.D. in 2003, studying the polyleucine-catalyzed asymmetric epoxidation of α,β-unsaturated ketones under the supervision of Professor Stan Roberts, funded by the EPSRC and a CASE award from Novartis. He then carried out postdoctoral research in medicinal chemistry at the University of Sheffield (UK), designing and synthesizing small molecule inhibitors of prion disease funded by the Department of Health. He is presently at Imperial College London (UK), carrying out MRC-funded postdoctoral research in the field of chemical proteomics directed toward malaria. His research is carried out at the biology–chemistry interface and he is particularly interested in the design and synthesis of small molecules for use in studying biological systems.