09/02/2022
We are excited to invite back Sir Gregory Winter, previous master of Trinity College and Chemistry Nobel Prize laureate for our next guest speaker event.
Date: Sunday 20th February
Time: 6pm
Location: Adrian seminar room, Burrell’s field
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to hear his talk on “Harnessing Evolution to make new medicines.” Have a look at the abstract below for more details and we hope to see you all there!
Abstract:
During the last century the conjunction of chemistry, medicine and latterly recombinant DNA technology, was responsible for driving the widespread development of chemicals as pharmaceutical drugs. The development of biologicals (manufactured by cell fermentation) was much slower, and had to await the advent of recombinant DNA technology, and in the case of antibodies, of hybridoma technology. Antibodies have since become established as the paramount biological, particularly for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease. Not only do antibody drugs now occupy the top sales rankings, but are making inroads into other areas poorly served by chemical drugs. Even as the application of antibodies expands, Darwinian selection technologies are leading to new drug platforms capable of creating tiny antibody mimics based on chemicals. Will such developments spark another wave of innovative medicines based on chemicals? I will trace the evolution of pharmaceutical drugs, and look into the future.
