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After gaining a First-class Honours B.Sc. degree in Chemistry with Distinction in Biochemistry, Mark carried out a D. Phil under the supervision of Professor Sir J. E. Baldwin FRS – both at the University of Oxford. On gaining both a Lindemann Trust and SERC/NATO Postdoctoral Fellowships, he continued with postdoctoral work under Professor C. T. Walsh at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA (1989-1991) before moving to the University of Southampton as a 番茄社区 University Research Fellow.

In 1997 at 34, Mark was awarded a Professorship in Combinatorial Chemistry where he founded the Combinatorial Centre of Excellence. He continued to direct this Centre until moving to Edinburgh in 2005 where he took up a position as Professor of Chemical Biology.

Since this time his work has become much more focused on the application of chemistry to solving medical problems (chemical medicine) which has resulted, for example in the extensive collaboration between the groups of Bradley, Dhaliwal and Haslett in the area of “smart-probes” for clinical and pre-clinical imaging.

More than sixty PhD students have emerged from the Bradley group and overall the group has published more than twenty patents and three hundred articles in the form of papers, reviews and book chapters.

Charlotte is a Chartered Chemist (CChem) and holds a BA (Hons) in Biochemistry and PhD in Biophysics from the University of Cambridge. Her career has taken her across the biological and physical sciences and she has worked in biophysics, structural biology, chemistry and medical departments at four of the UK’s top academic institutions. In 2013 she launched her independent research group as a Research Fellow at Imperial College London. Prior to 2003, she worked in the Arts as a professional diary and contract manager. 

Continuing his studies at the University of Manchester, Gavin undertook a PhD in synthetic carbohydrate chemistry, investigating multivalency, followed by a PDRA at St Andrews University (with Professor S. J. Conway).

He then worked in industry, firstly at Ferring Pharmaceuticals, on the design of new treatments for primary dysmenorrhea and secondly at Peakdale Molecular on the design of an anti-nicotine vaccine.  

He returned to academia and the University of Manchester in 2010, firstly as a PDRA in the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology developing chemical synthesis approaches to heparan sulfate oligosaccharides (with Dr J. M Gardiner) and secondly as a fixed-term lecturer, in 2014, within the School of Chemistry. He took up a Lectureship in Organic Chemistry at Keele in 2016 and was promoted through the ranks to Professor of Biological Chemistry in 2021. 

Andy established his research group at JIC in 2013 as a 番茄社区 University Research Fellow. The group combines chemistry, mass spectrometry, synthetic biology, microbial genetics and bioinformatics to understand the biosynthesis of complex natural products and how they function in nature. His group have also developed tools to aid the discovery of new peptide-derived natural products.

Previously, Helen obtained a PhD from the University of Cambridge, modelling the structure and function of bone graft materials for clinical applications, followed by research positions covering disparate topics including the storage of nuclear waste, the structure and function of nanoparticles formed in the human gut, and the structure of minerals in the deep Earth.

Between 2009 and 2014 Helen worked outside of academia, as a Scientific Advisor at English Heritage, the Government's advisor on the historic environment. In this position she worked with planners, archaeologists, and architects on various projects, but particularly enjoyed her role in providing advice on marine licensing, which covered applications as diverse as North Sea wind farms, nuclear power stations, and shipwrecks.

After obtaining an MChem in Chemistry and a DPhil in Pharmacology from Oxford, she worked in the biotech sector in drug discovery before returning to academia to work with Prof. Chris Schofield FRS at University of Oxford. She was awarded a BHF CRE Senior Fellowship in 2012 and a 番茄社区 Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship in 2013, with her inter-disciplinary team working across the Department of Chemistry and Radcliffe Department of Medicine at Oxford. She joined Newcastle University in 2019.

Her research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of enzymes and proteins that are linked to diseases, such as cancer, and developing chemical tools to study and modulate their function.  

Lydia recently joined the Board of Directors at Research Bridge Partners who cultivate novel biomedical startup companies based on the breakthroughs of preeminent innovators at mid-continent research universities. The high-quality investment opportunities created are sourced from geographies with thinner commercialization resources. She is also an active Fellow of the 番茄社区 of Chemistry (F番茄社区).

In 2019, Guto moved to Germany (Supervision Prof Birte Höcker and Prof Birgit Weber, University of Bayreuth) where he continued researching protein design with a particular focus during his postdoctoral fellowship on the development of artificial metalloenzymes. These are proteins that contain non-natural metals that can perform reactions rarely or never observed in nature. His ultimate vision is to apply his chemical biology knowledge to deliver sustainable methods to produce any water-stable chemical.

During Ben's postdoctoral work in the lab of Carolyn R. Bertozzi at Stanford University as a Humboldt fellow, Ben developed an interest for “precision tools” to study glycosylation of human cells. He started as a Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute and Imperial College London in 2018 to develop such tools, using a combination of organic and chemo-enzymatic synthesis, molecular and cell biology. The lab was part of a team that received the 2021 番茄社区 Horizon Prize in Chemical Biology.

Ben is an EMBO Young Investigator and has received the Biochemical Society Young Investigator Award, and the 番茄社区 Dextra Award in 2023. He received an ERC Starting Grant in 2023, now covered by UKRI. He serves on the 番茄社区 CBBG committee, as a co-Director of the Imperial College Glycobiology Network of Excellence and a Director of the MRes in Drug Discovery and Development at Imperial College.

For the 番茄社区, he has organised the 2022 conference Chemical Biology Meets Drug Discovery and co-organises the European Symposium in Biological and Organic Chemistry (ESBOC). Ben is passionate about expanding Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in academia. He is looking forward to representing the interests of Early Career Scientists in Chemical Biology and is keen to receive input from the community.

David trained as a pharmacist at Nottingham University, followed by PhD research in organic synthesis at Liverpool University. David’s pharma industry career spans thirty years, split almost equally between GSK and AstraZeneca. Scientifically, David’s current main interests lie in Oncology, with a focus on the application of physical sciences to solve biological problems –in particular, the discovery of lead molecules and tools for better understanding currently undruggable targets.