Sridhar Vasudevan

I was educated at Anna University, India and received a Bachelors in Biotechnology in 2004. Following this I moved to Oxford to pursue my MSc in Pharmacology (2005) and DPhil under the tutelage of Grant Churchill and Antony Galione where I worked on elucidating the role of calcium signaling second messengers (in neurons and sperm) and developing small molecule modulators for these targets using both traditional and computational approaches (2009). 

Following my DPhil, I pursued a Post-Doctoral training under Grant Churchill studying the role of calcium signaling processes in psychiatric and caridio-metabolic disorders where we identified several small molecule modulators with potential therapeutic and commercial value that are currently under clinical evaluation. On back this, I was awarded the BBSRC-RSE enterprise fellowship (Edinburgh) where I received business training for commercializing research outputs. Following this spell, I was awarded a lectureship in Pharmacology to pursue my research into drug discovery and during this was a recipient of successive research and translational grants from BBSRC, MRC and Wellcome Trust.

My path in psychiatric drug discovery directly led me to research circadian rhythms and sleep (one of the earliest signs of brain disorders). Since, my research has significantly expanded in this area. I am currently an Associate Professor in Pharmacology and Drug Discovery focusing on identifying new targets and developing small molecule sleep and circadian rhythm modulators. My labs current interest lies in investigating the effectiveness of manipulating sleep and circadian rhythms to treat metabolic, psychiatric and degenerative disorders and advancing them to the clinics alongside studying signalling pathways and chemical mediators involved in regulating these processes. We do this academically, with industrial partners and via our newly generated spin-out Circadian Therapeutics (https://www.circadiantherapeutics.com).

I also deliver teaching in subjects relating to advanced pharmacology, psychiatry, drug/target discovery and sleep circadian science to students in Medicine, Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacology.