Jacob Bradbury

Jacob is a DPhil student on the Wellcome Trust Chemistry in Cells programme. Before starting his DPhil, Jacob read for an MSci Natural Sciences (Biology and Chemistry) at Durham University, graduating in 2021. His research experience is in both preclinical and clinical drug development, having previously worked characterising novel CFTR modulators and on an antifungal clinical trial. During his final year project, Jacob designed and synthesised selective activators of the non-genomic retinoid response co-supervised by Prof. Ehmke Pohl (Structural Biology) and Prof. Andy Whiting (Chemistry).

Jacob is most passionate about rational drug discovery and chemical biology. Supervised by Dr. Thomas Lanyon-Hogg (Department of Pharmacology) and Prof. Timothy Walsh (Oxford Ineos Institute, Department of Biology), Jacob designs and synthesises compounds that inhibit the DNA repair pathway and the SOS response, responsible for the development of bacterial resistance. Jacob also designs assays to screen for compound activity and assess compound potency in both DNA repair inhibition and SOS response inhibition.

Jacob tutors Chemical Biology to undergraduates at St John's, as well as demonstrating on practicals for the MSc Pharmacology course. He is also responsible for supervising undergraduate and summer students in the lab.