Collaborative PhD programme 3

Before I started my PhD on the GSK Strathclyde collaborative PhD programme, I did an integrated MChem degree at Oxford University. My master's project was in spin chemistry so quite different from where I ended up with my PhD work. And I then moved on to the PhD programme and the rest is history.

My PhD project sat sort of between Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology and was based at the GSK Stevenage site. I was working on bifunctional small molecules, including antibody recruiting molecules for targeted cell killing and lysosomal targeting chimeras or targeted protein degradation. My project began with a lot of synthesis. But I did do an increasing amount of biological assay work as I made my way through the project and I picked up new skills. And by the end of the PhD, I was running cell based assays and I was fortunate enough to learn some of the skills for that during a secondment to the GSK Upper Providence site in the US.

As I mentioned, the PhD was quite a big change from my master's project. And it was certainly a steep learning curve and the challenge when I started. And the reason for the change from my from my masters to the PhD and moving into the pharmaceutical industry was it was only very late on in, in my degree that we had any exposure really to medicinal chemistry and I remember the lecturer explaining the kind of design and mechanism of cisplatin. And it just got me really interested in the idea of rational drug design. And so when I saw the opportunity to learn more within the pharmaceutical industry that was really appealing to me.

I also knew that I did not want to stay in academia long term. So it was I thought it was a great chance to get some relevant experience in industry and of a work environment more generally, at the same time as taking on an academic project as a PhD. But at the time, I was not really looking for PhDs in academia and if I had not ended up on this particular programme, I think I would have probably worked in research and development and then thought about further study later on in my career.

So during COVID, the PhD students based at Stevenage and my cohort, they spent quite a lot of time out of the lab or on a rota with more limited lab time to make space for essential project work within the kind of socially distant system that was implemented. I was fortunate in that I had run some DNA coded library selection shortly before the pandemic began. And so I was able to spend quite a lot of time running data analysis at home. But one of the kind of unfortunate impacts was that I was not able to get up to Glasgow for us a common at the University of Strathclyde, which normally PhDs on the programme will do for three months or so. And I would have really liked to get some experience of a different type of chemistry and to get to know my academic supervisors group, and really spend some time in Glasgow it would have been great. So that was a bit of a bit of a shame. And the other thing that I think we all missed out on was, was in person conferences. I was lucky to be able to attend quite a few virtual events, which I really enjoyed. And I like presenting and communicating, communicating my science to other people, but it would have been really nice to present more in person and kind of connected people in a more meaningful way.

So I always find the question of where I would like to be, later on in my career, quite a tricky one. I never I never feel like I'm planning things out very far in advance. But I would like to stay in drug discovery in the future. And it may sound very cliché, but I would like to feel that I'm making a contribution to getting drugs to the market which will really make a difference to patients. When I finished the PhD recently I was not very sure which direction I want to go wanted to go in, in terms of the types of role to look for. I have just taken a job in clinical development on that site, which will be a big change and again, a lot to learn after the PhD. But I'm really looking forward to starting and seeing what I make of that new side of drug discovery.