Chair in Drug Discovery

The Departments of Life Sciences and Chemistry are seeking an exceptional research leader to join us as Chair in Drug Discovery, a strategic joint appointment across the two departments that will help shape the future of therapeutic innovation at Bath and play a central role in the new Centre for Drug Discovery (CDD).

CDD is a major cross-faculty initiative bringing together chemists, biologists, data scientists and engineers to accelerate drug discovery through innovation in synthesis, screening, computation and translation. The Centre will focus on emerging modalities and enabling technologies from cyclic small molecules, peptides, antibodies and macrocycles exploring new 3D chemical space to AI-guided synthesis, flow automation and direct-to-biology screening. By integrating Bath’s strengths in synthetic chemistry, chemical and structural biology and advanced delivery science, the CDD will offer a distinctive environment for developing next-generation molecular tools and therapeutic leads.

About you

• Demonstrate inclusive leadership and a commitment to fostering a diverse research environment.
• Have a strong track record of internationally recognised research in drug discovery.
• Are passionate about collaboration across disciplines and sectors.
• Can mentor and support researchers at all career stages including Bath Prize Fellows.
• Engage with industry and innovation networks to translate discoveries into real-world impact.
• Can teach aspects of drug discovery in both lectures and laboratory classes and contribute to our PGT course on Drug Discovery (joint between the departments of Chemistry and Life Sciences), maintaining the University’s high standards in teaching and learning, and its inclusive and supportive learning environment.

While we encourage applications from a range of backgrounds, we particularly welcome candidates whose research aligns with one or more of the following areas: 

• Medicinal chemistry for emerging modalities such as peptides, molecular glues, PROTACs, ADCs or covalent inhibitors.
• Innovative screening approaches, e.g. DNA-encoded libraries, affinity-selection mass spectrometry, chemoproteomics or AI/ML-driven virtual screening. 
• Computational drug discovery including molecular design, macrocycle conformations, docking, or predictive models for permeability and pharmacokinetics. 

About Drug Discovery at Bath

Drug discovery at Bath is driven by close integration between the Departments of Life Sciences and Chemistry, uniting expertise in peptide design, synthetic chemistry, chemoproteomics and computational modelling. Core strengths include chemical and structural biology, pharmacology and antibiotic discovery, with projects spanning early-stage molecular design through to pre-clinical mechanism-of-action studies.

Life Sciences provides cutting-edge laboratories for molecular and cellular biology, microbiology and pharmaceutical sciences, including tissue-culture suites, automated liquid handling and a zebrafish facility for in vivo pharmacology. Chemistry complements this with world-class infrastructure for automated and flow synthesis, compound characterisation (MS, NMR, DReaM Facility) and access to Bath’s High-Performance Computing and AI/ML platforms for virtual screening and molecular design.

Both departments have a strong track record in innovation with a number of spin out companies. The new appointment will join a vibrant cross-faculty community engaging with industry, the regional GW4 innovation network and opportunity to benefit from the South-West Life Science network.

Together, these resources offer an exceptional environment for innovative researchers to develop and test new approaches to molecular discovery.

What we can offer you

We're continually expanding our benefits package to better support you and enhance your experience with us and the below is just an example of some of the many great benefits we offer:

• Free counselling services through Health Assured.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme.
• Staff discount at Team Bath gym.
• Staff discounts on postgraduate tuition fees.
• Staff discount on language courses.
• Generous employer contributory pension schemes.
• Generous annual leave allowance with an additional 5 discretionary days so that you can enjoy a positive work life balance.
• A wide range of personal and professional development opportunities including. Apprenticeships, LinkedIn Learning and more.
• Free entry to the Holburne Museum in Bath.
• Local discounts and more.
• A family-friendly workplace.
• An excellent reward package that recognises the talents of our diverse workforce.
• Relocation allowance.
• Visa reimbursement and Interest-Free Loan to help with the cost of some immigration expenses.