RSC Desktop Seminar Series with RSC Medicinal Chemistry & RSC-BMCS

Team Leader, Structural Chemistry, Oncology R&D, Chemistry, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK
Nichola Davies completed her PhD studies in physical organic chemistry at the University of Cambridge, utilising NMR spectroscopy to investigate positively cooperative binding and the tightening of non-covalent bonds. Nichola then joined Pfizer (Sandwich, UK) as an NMR spectroscopist supporting the medicinal chemistry department and implemented new techniques for structure elucidation and the application of novel NMR methodologies to support medicinal chemistry design strategies.

Having gained further experience in a wider range of analytical techniques, in 2014 she joined AstraZeneca (Cambridge, UK), as an NMR expert within the Oncology Chemistry R&D Unit. Currently a team leader for the structural chemistry unit, Nichola is delivering analytical techniques to support small molecule structural characterisation, purity and stability assessment, in addition to NMR free ligand conformational analysis and in-cell MS concentration assays.

Yonghui Zhang received his Ph.D in Chemistry in 2002 from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences and pursued his postdoctoral training at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the United States. Dr. Zhang is now a Professor at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Tsinghua University, a leader of higher education and academic research in China. Dr. Zhang has published over 60 papers in the field of medicinal chemistry, organic chemistry, chemical biology and immunology.

He has pioneered in discovering and characterizing the relationship between lipid metabolism and immune regulation. By using a multidisciplinary approach involving structural biology, molecular immunology, cell and mice models, and medicinal chemistry, he demonstrated that the mevalonate pathway is a druggable target for vaccine adjuvants and developed lipophilic bisphosphonates and statins as Th-1 vaccine adjuvants. Currently, his lab is developing and applying innovative chemical approaches to a variety of immuno-modulatory process, with a focus on vaccination, allogeneic immune cell therapy and new anti-infection strategy.