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Dr Katie Simmons

Dr Katie Simmons

  • Position: Research Fellow
  • Areas of expertise: Medicinal Chemistry; Virtual High-throughput screening; Cell Biology
  • Email: K.J.Simmons@leeds.ac.uk
  • Location: LICAMM Level 7 LIGHT Laboratories
  • Website: Twitter | ORCID

Profile

I took a place at Newcastle University to study for a Master’s degree in Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry in 2001. As part of my MChem there, I was lucky to work in the Northern Institute for Cancer Research, synthesising small molecules as potential anti-cancer agents. This piqued my interest in drug discovery and I applied for a PhD in Leeds in the same field.

In 2005, I started my PhD in Chemistry, looking to design and synthesise new small molecule antibacterial agents. I was co-author of four papers based on this work, including first author on an invited review published in Nature Reviews Molecular Biology. I completed my PhD in 2008, and started to work on a ground-breaking EU-funded collaboration with researchers from all over Europe. The aim of this project was to identify small molecule inhibitors of a number of different membrane proteins, ion channels and transporters. I was co-author on five papers based on this work, including a first author paper in The EMBO journal. I returned to work after a period of maternity leave in 2013 on a project to identify small molecule antimalarial agents- these are now in pre-clinical development, in partnership with the Medicines for Malaria Venture. In 2014 I moved from the School of Chemistry to the Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine. I am currently employed on a British Heart Foundation programme grant, working for Prof Mark Kearney looking to identify small molecules to selectively inhibit the formation of insulin receptor IGF1 receptor hybrids and we have a number of exciting hit molecules we are currently evaluating further.

Qualifications

  • MChem Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry
  • PhD Chemistry

Research groups and institutes

  • Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine
  • Multidisciplinary Cardiovascular Research Centre
<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>
Projects
    <li><a href="//phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/1018-licamm-developing-small-molecule-therapeutics-to-target-cardiac-inflammation-and-disease">LICAMM Developing small molecule therapeutics to target cardiac inflammation and disease</a></li>