Andy Wilson

Professor of Chemical Biology PhD, BSc (Hons), FRSC, FHEA. Andy received a BSc (Hons) 1st class at The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in 1997 and then undertook his PhD in synthetic chemistry with Professor David A. Leigh FRS on ‘The Controlled Synthesis of Interlocked Architectures’, firstly at UMIST then at The University of Warwick, where he graduated in 2001. He started post-doctoral research at Yale University (USA) with Professor Andrew D. Hamilton FRS on the topic of protein surface recognition, followed by further postdoctoral research with Professors E. W. (Bert) Meijer and Rint P. Sijbesma at Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands) on the topic of supramolecular polymers. From 2004 he held posts at the University of Leeds, prior to joining the University of Birmingham in 2023 as Professor of Chemical Biology. Andy’s research was recognized through the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Bob Hay Lectureship (2012) and the RSC Norman Heatley Award (2016). 

Clara Eriksson

Clara is a first year PhD student, Funded by the BBSRC Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership with Andy Wilson and Steve Smerdon. Her collaborative project focusses on development and application of chemical probes to target Protein-Protein Interactions. Prior to joining the Wilson Group, Clara graduated from the University of Birmingham in July 2024 with an Integrated Master’s in Chemistry. During her degree, she completed a 12 month placement at Roche, in Basel, Switzerland. Here, she worked on the development and synthesis of small molecule candidates for cancer immunotherapy. 

Diana Gimenez Ibanez

Diana is a postdoctoral research associate working with Andy Wilson and Megan Wright on the development of new tools to understand and influence protein-protein interactions involving intrinsically disordered regions. Before joining the team in 2021, Diana was a BBSRC research associate at Durham University in Prof. Steven L. Cobb’s group, working on ex-vivo antifungals. Prior to this, Diana completed her PhD in 2019 at Durham University funded through the Marie Curie ITN Fluor21 network on the topic of conformational control of peptoids by means of fluorine and fluorine induced dipolar interactions. Diana was awarded the Biophysical Sciences Institute thesis prize in 2018 for the best thesis, the Durham University Chemistry department Ken Wade award in 2019, and the Berlin Female Young Talent Award of the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1349 in 2019.

Toby Hopkinson

Toby is a first year PhD student focusing on developing peptidomimetic covalent inhibitors for protein-protein interactions and ligand directed labelling probes. Before joining the group, Toby completed his MSci in 2024 at King’s College London, working on chemoenzymatic synthesis of antimicrobial peptides under Dr Sarah Barry and Dr Manuel Müller.

Theo Woolhouse-Lorber

Theo is a first year PhD student funded by the British Heart Foundation focussing on PROTAC-based technology to inhibit inflammation. His collaborative project involves work with Andy Wilson and within the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences alongside Alex Brill. Theo was awarded an Integrated Master’s in Chemistry from the University of Bristol in July 2024 which included a year abroad studying at Université Grenoble Alpes. His Master’s research, within the Willis Group, surrounded the total synthesis of the natural product Phomolide F and the functional group sensitivity of Grubbs metathesis reactions. Prior to starting his PhD, Theo undertook a voluntary project at the University of Leicester, in the Hodgkinson Group, to investigate the synthesis and application of PROTAC-based drugs.      

Chloe Ross-Benham

Chloe graduated with an MChem from Leeds in October 2022 and is working on a joint project with Prof Sheena Radford and Adam Nelson. Her project is to develop small molecule inhibitors of amyloid formation.

Emma Barclay

Emma is a third-year PhD student working with Dr Robin Bon, Dr Martin McPhillie, and Dr Heiko Wurdak, funded by the Dr Simon Waterworth Studentship. She graduated with an MChem in Medicinal and Biological Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh in 2022, during which she completed a placement in organic chemistry at Jazz Pharmaceuticals. Her project involves the development of small molecule inhibitors of mitochondrial metabolism for the treatment of glioblastoma.

Chloe Shingler

Chloe is a final-year PhD student funded through an EPSRC CASE studentship in collaboration with LifeArc. Chloe is co-supervised by Dr Megan Wright and Prof Andrew Wilson and is working on developing chemical tools to study intrinsically disordered protein regions. Chloe graduated from the University of Leeds in 2021 with an MChem in Medicinal Chemistry where she spent a year at Pfizer studying hydrogels as drug delivery systems. For her final year project, Chloe worked in the Nelson group synthesising a library of shape diverse fragment-like molecules using C-H arylation.