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Professor Colin Fishwick

About Colin

Colin Fishwick received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Liverpool, graduating with First Class Honours in 1982. He went on to carry out his PhD there from 1982 - 1985 before joining the staff at University of Leeds in 1985. He was appointed to a Chair in Medicinal Chemistry in 2009. He is currently Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Leeds and Honorary Visiting Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Bradford, Institute of Cancer Therapeutics. He has authored more than 145 publications (including 5 papers in the Nature group of journals within the last five years),  has a H-index of 32, and is an inventor on a number of patents. He was Head of Organic Chemistry between 2013 – 18, and has been Head of the School of Chemistry since 2018.

Research Interests

Colin's research interests focus on the application of structure-based molecular design to the identification of new therapeutic drug leads, particularly for anti-infective agents. Computer-aided design and subsequent synthesis of drug-like molecules has been directed against important therapeutic targets including antibacterial, antimalarial, antithrombotic, anti-Alzheimer's agents and anti-cancer agents.

Selected Invited lectures

  • Invited Speaker, 1 day Symposium; Fighting resistant bacteria, Cape Town February 2018
  • Invited Speaker, 8th Academy of Pharmaceutical; Sciences  Conference, Hatfield UK September 2017
  • Invited Speaker, 2nd Romark Conference, Liverpool UK, May 2017
  • Plenary Lecture, 23rd Young Research Fellow Meeting (YRFM) in Lille, the 15th February 2016.
  • Invited Speaker, MRC SWON alliance-Industry Workshop, Warwick, September 2016
  • Invited Speaker, RSC Romark Medicinal Chemistry Symposium, Liverpool, May 2017.
  • Invited Speaker, Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences 8th International Symposium, 2017
  • Distinguished Speaker, SMi- European BioNetworks Summit, London, July 2014.
  • Invited Speaker, Peakdale Conference on Medicinal Chemistry, Leeds, September 3rd 2014.
  • Invited Speaker, Academia Pharma Development Partnerships Summit, London, November 2014.
  • Special Guest Speaker ‘Recent Advances in Pharmaceutical Sciences’ conference, Hyderabad, India 2012.
  • Keynote Speaker at the 3rd International Conference on Pharmaceutical Sciences for the Future of Medicine, Prague 2011.
  • Plenary Speaker at the 10th Annual Conference on Superbugs and Superdrugs, London 2011.
  • Plenary Speaker at the International Conference on Antimalarial Drugs: Chemistry, Development and Future  Challenges, London 2011.
  • Plenary Lecturer at the 6th World Congress on the Insulin Resistance Syndrome, Los Angeles 2008.
  • Plenary Lecturer at the Marcus Evans Conference on Translational Medicine for Antibacterial and Antifungal Drug Development’, London 2008.
  • Invited speaker at the 5th International Drug Discovery Science Technology Conference, Shanghai 2007.
  • Invited speaker at the 5th International Joint Meeting on Medicinal Chemistry, Slovenia 2007.
  • Invited speaker at the Keystone Computer-Aided Drug Discovery Conference, Whistler Canada 2006.
  • Recipient of Hofmann La Roche, Visiting Lectureship, Basel, Switzerland 2005.

Consultancy

  • Consultant to AstraZeneca (India) on aspects of anti-TB drug discovery (2005 – 2008).
  • Consultant to Wellcome Trust Seeding Drug Discovery Programme (2006 – 2016).

Administrative responsibilities

  • Director of the Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology (MCCB) technology group of the University of Leeds Biomedical and Health Research Centre (2008 – 2014).
  • Full Member, Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, University of Leeds, UK.
  • Member of Executive Committee, Multidisciplinary Centre for Cardiovascular Research, University of Leeds.
  • Editorial Board Member, Scientific Reports, (2016 – present).
  • Editorial Advisory Board Member, ACS Infectious Diseases, (2015 – present).
  • Editorial Advisory Board Member, European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, (2016 – present).