PhD in Targets and Therapies

University of Leeds

The programme to develop a new drug starts with a health condition with no suitable medicine, a disease of unmet need. Research aimed at drug discovery starts with the identifying the target, the nucleic acid, protein or signalling pathway that might be activated or inhibited to cause a therapeutic effect. Validation of this target increases confidence that this particular molecule is causative or involved in the disease mechanism. New therapies can then be found through screening for a small molecule or biologic that is effective against that target. Our research focuses on identification and validation of target molecules which then inform the development of small molecule screens and new biologics for use in the clinic.