Meet The Team
Storm Hassell-Hart
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow
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Storm graduated with a double first class degree from the University of Cambridge in 2014, conducting his masters project under the supervision of Professor Steve Ley, before undertaking a PhD on the collaborative GSK/Strathclyde post doctorate programme. During his PhD he was involved in a diverse range of research projects, including the development of boron-based inhibitors of phospholipids, new Pauson-Khand methodologies, and rhodium C-H activation to develop bromodomain inhibitors.
His current research is based on the use of new C-H activation methodologies to develop inhibitors of several promising biological targets, most significantly PHIP-2 which is implicated in the development of skin cancer.
Andrew McGown
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Andrew graduated from the University of Liverpool in 2013 with a BSc in Chemistry before undertaking a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Salford. His PhD involved the synthesis and evaluation of novel anticancer therapeutics derived from a family of natural products which were designed to stabilise secondary DNA structural targets.
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Andrew is currently working on a drug discovery project aiming to produce therapeutics for use in the treatment of Niemann Pick disease; a rare, neurodegenerative disorder which affects an estimated 1 in 150,000 people worldwide.
Raysa Khan
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow
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Raysa graduated top of her class and obtained a 1st class BSc in Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry from Nottingham Trent University in 2014. She has completed her PhD with an Industrial CASE-EPSRC scholarship in collaboration with AstraZeneca and Tocris Bioscience. During her PhD Raysa worked with late-stage C-H functionalisation, library design of privileged scaffolds utilising palladium catalysis, photocatalysis and microwave-mediated chemistry to develop synthesis routes towards high-value end compounds.
In her current Medicinal Chemistry project, Raysa is working towards designing and synthesizing 'rescue' drugs of a p53 mutant Y220C - a mutation that affects ca. 100,000 cancer patients every year.
Anthony
Edmonds
PhD Student
Anthony graduated from Keele University after obtaining a 1st class MChem in 2017, where he tailored his expertise to the field of Organic & Synthetic Medicinal Chemistry. Within the research group he has been awarded an iCASE-EPSRC PhD studentship in collaboration with Tocris Bioscience.
Anthony’s research is focused on the development of novel Proteolysis Targeting Chimeras (PROTACs), for applications in cancer therapeutics.
Jack Devonport
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PhD Student
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The work detail will be available shortly
Arathy Jose
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PhD Student
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The work detail will be available shortly
CURRENT RESEARCH FOCUS
Organic Synthetic Methodology Towards Bioactive Molecules
Library Design (Ro3 fragments, privileged scaffolds)
C-H activation, atom economical chemistry and rapid synthesis (microwave/flow chemistries)
Microwave-mediated chemistry(coupling reactions, reductions, cyclisations)
Multifunctional boronic acids amenable to Suzuki Miyaura and other chemistries e.g. metathesis, SNAr, SN2 substitutions
Palladacycle design, study and reactivity
Bioinorganic chemistry
Spencer Lab Alumni
Nino Puglisi; now Research Fellow Istanbul
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Raj Rathnam: academic, Saudi Arabia
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Hiren Patel; Indian Pharma.
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Irene Chuckowree; Research Fellow Sussex Drug Discovery.
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Christine Baltus: Research Fellow (Uni. Tours, France)
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Jahangir Amin
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Adam Close: (Concept Pharma)
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Gavin Roffe: (Sussex Outreach)
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Supojjanee Sansook: academic, Thailand.
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Melvyn Ansell: trainee patent attorney