It’s Christmas Eve! I hope you’re all getting to enjoy the festivities in some way, whether you’re taking a break from research/work with family and friends or taking advantage of it being quiet to get work done - or a special shout out if you’re one of the superheroes that keep the emergency services running …
Reflections on second year
This is my last week in the lab of 2018. It’s only really four days because we're having our group’s Christmas party on Friday (laser quest and pub lunch) and then I’m at a conference on Monday before taking the rest of the week off before Christmas. Towards the end of first year I wrote …
My Placement Year in Switzerland
Increasingly, universities are offering integrated masters science degrees over bachelor degrees. These normally include an additional year of study and/or a placement year in industry or an academic research group. In this post I’ll tell you about the science I did on my placement in Switzerland and how it is linked to a major drug approval that happened a few months ago.
Chemistry PhD: A Day in the Life
I find people’s routines really interesting. Everybody’s different. Some people are early birds while others are night owls. Some people work long hours and others manage to fit a lot of work into a short period of time. In this post I chat about what a typical day looks like for me and the various …
How do I know I’ve made the right molecule?
I spend my days in a chemistry lab making drug-like molecules. A lot of these end up being small quantities (less than 0.1 g!) and usually have the appearance of a white/off-white powder. Occasionally I get a colour which is very exciting. The question a non-chemist might ask is “how do you know you’ve made …
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Why did I want to do cancer research?
My PhD project involves designing and making “tool molecules” that might lead to new cancer drugs one day. Medicinal chemistry covers a vast range of disease areas and many scientists often have a personal connection to their particular field. In this post I will discuss some of the personal experiences that motivated me to pursue …
Will I ever use my A-level Chemistry? (Part 2/2)
On the 2018 A-level results day I posted the first of two blogs about what learning outcomes of A-level Chemistry I still use in my day to day work as a medicinal chemistry PhD student. It was so many that I had to split it into two blog posts! Since it's the first day of …
Continue reading "Will I ever use my A-level Chemistry? (Part 2/2)"
Will I ever use my A-level Chemistry? (Part 1/2)
Today is A-level results day. The Independent reported that about 46,800 students took A-level chemistry in 2017 – the fourth most popular subject after mathematics, biology and psychology. That's a lot of people learning about the ingredients of the universe! While deep in the exam period, you might think the things you are revising are …
Continue reading "Will I ever use my A-level Chemistry? (Part 1/2)"
pH and Drug Design
Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the Danish biochemist S.P.L. Sørensen (1868-1939) (Figure 1). He came up with the famous pH scale that is taught to high school chemistry students and is an important property to consider when using chemicals. The Doodle is a game which gets you to guess how acidic or basic some common household …
What is the drug discovery process?
During my undergraduate degree, people would often ask what course I was studying. Usually the response to "Chemistry with Drug Discovery" was "Chemistry with what?". No, it doesn't involve hunting around with a magnifying glass looking for paracetamol. The drug discovery process is a huge chain of events involving numerous people that gets a medicine …
