medicinal chemistry PhD Projects, Programs & Scholarships

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

Background. The sulfoximine functional group is becoming increasingly popular within medicinal chemistry groups – notably, sulfoximines have featured in potential cancer treatments in clinical trials such as AZD6738 developed by AstraZeneca.

Design and Synthesis of Bifunctional 3-D Building Blocks for Use in Medicinal Chemistry

University of York
Department of Chemistry

Prof P O'Brien

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

This project is in collaboration with Professor Mike Waring (Newcastle University). Background. Fragment-based methods are established for the identification of lead compounds in drug discovery.1 Fragments are small molecules (molecular weight ~150-300) which bind weakly to proteins.

PhD Student in Organic/Medicinal Chemistry (New Antibiotics)

Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research
Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS)

Dr A Titz

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project has funding attached, subject to eligibility criteria. Applications for the project are welcome from all suitably qualified candidates, but its funding may be restricted to a limited set of nationalities. You should check the project and department details for more information.

The Helmholtz Association is the largest research organisation in Germany with over 40.000 employees. The Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) was founded between the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and Saarland University in 2009.

Exploiting druggability host spots in protein phosphatase targets

The University of Manchester
Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health

Dr L Tabernero, Prof D Procter, Dr S Butterworth

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

In the past years the use of virtual screening or computer-based screening of compound libraries against selected targets has expanded exponentially the boundaries of drug discovery.

PhD in Chemical Biology -- Neuropeptide Research -- University of Vienna

University of Vienna
Institute of Biological Chemistry

Prof M Muttenthaler

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project has funding attached, subject to eligibility criteria. Applications for the project are welcome from all suitably qualified candidates, but its funding may be restricted to a limited set of nationalities. You should check the project and department details for more information.

Neuropeptides are key mediators in many biological functions and understanding their interaction with target proteins is fundamental to unravel the underlying mechanism of diseases.

Development of antiviral peptidomimetic enzyme inhibitors

Aberdeen University
Department of Chemistry

Dr L Trembleau, Dr H Deng

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

Coronaviruses are a large group of viruses that circulate and evolve among various animals. They can cause mild human illnesses such as the common cold or more serious respiratory diseases as seen in the recent outbreaks of SARS (2002), MERS (2012), and COVID-19 (2019).

Investigation of the critical roles of platelets at the interface between thrombosis and inflammation in order to develop improved therapeutic strategies for the treatment and/or prevention of cardiovascular/inflammatory diseases

University of Reading
School of Pharmacy

Dr S Vaiyapuri

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

"Platelets (small circulating blood cells) are involved in blood clotting to prevent excessive bleeding, however, their inappropriate activation under pathological conditions leads to thrombosis resulting in major cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke.

Designing new molecules against Alzheimer’s disease using artificial intelligence techniques

University of Sheffield
Information School

Dr A de la Vega de Leon, Prof B Chen

Application Deadline: 1 June 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project has funding attached for UK and EU students, though the amount may depend on your nationality. Non-EU students may still be able to apply for the project provided they can find separate funding. You should check the project and department details for more information.

The Sheffield Chemoinformatics Research Group is pleased to offer a fully-funded 3.5 year PhD studentship.

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors conjugated tumour targeting dyes for the treatment of glioblastoma.

University of Auckland
School of Medical Sciences

Dr J Jose, Dr P Choi

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

Glioblastoma (GBM) remains a lethal and difficult to treat cancer with a dismal outcome. Although we have a better understanding of the disease progression, a concurrent increase in therapeutic intervention is lagging.

Novel Cyclic Peptides for Biomedical Imaging and Therapeutic Targeting

Loughborough University
School of Science

Prof M Zanda

Application Deadline: 1 September 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

Cyclic Peptides have a wide range of applications as drugs and diagnostics, and have often higher receptor affinity, metabolic stability and better pharmacokinetic properties compared to their linear counterparts, but their synthesis still presents significant challenges.

A chemical biology approach to identifying cyclic peptide protein-protein interaction inhibitors

University of Southampton
Chemistry

Prof A Tavassoli

Application Deadline: 31 August 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

Competition Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project is in competition for funding with other projects. Usually the project which receives the best applicant will be successful. Unsuccessful projects may still go ahead as self-funded opportunities.

Supervisor. Ali Tavassoli. Project description. We are seeking a talented and motivated scientist to work on a 3.5 year interdisciplinary PhD project in the field of chemical biology, funded by a major US pharmaceutical company.

Mapping the three dimensional structure of RNA

University of Warwick
Department of Chemistry

Prof M Wills

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project has funding attached, subject to eligibility criteria. Applications for the project are welcome from all suitably qualified candidates, but its funding may be restricted to a limited set of nationalities. You should check the project and department details for more information.

We aim to combine organic synthetic chemistry, molecular biology, virology and computational biology tools to elucidate the 3D structure determinants behind RNA viruses such as dengue virus and coronaviruses.

Bioorthogonal Chemistry and Fluorescent Post-Labeling for Real-Time Tracking of a Platinum-based Anticancer Drug

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
RCSI StAR International PhD Programme Research Projects

Dr D Griffith, Dr D O’Shea

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

Metal-based drugs have a wide range of medicinal applications and are routinely used clinically as therapeutic and diagnostic agents.

Identification of mlm receptor antagonists for treatment of cancer

University of Leeds
School of Chemistry

Dr R Foster

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

Competition Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project is in competition for funding with other projects. Usually the project which receives the best applicant will be successful. Unsuccessful projects may still go ahead as self-funded opportunities.

Recent high impact publications have identified antagonism of the mlm receptor as a possible target for treatment of cancer. The native ligand of the receptor has been linked to cell proliferation which has been proven to be as a result of increased nitric oxide (NO) concentration.

Fostering development of ‘smart’, responsive therapeutics against cancer-related microRNAs.

The University of Manchester
Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health

Dr E Bichenkova, Prof D Clarke, Dr H Aojula

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

Short functional non-coding microRNAs are implicated in many types of cancer, and thus can be used as biological targets for development of more selective and powerful anticancer therapies.