Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Head of the School of Chemistry, University of Leeds

Professor Colin Fishwick joined the staff at University of Leeds, School of Chemistry in 1985, being appointed to a Chair in Medicinal Chemistry in 2009, and Head of the School of Chemistry in 2018.

His internationally leading research is focussed on the application of structure-based computational molecular design for the rapid identification of drug leads.

A particular focus of his work is the development of new anti-infectives, particularly for treatment of infections resulting from drug resistant bacteria as well as parasites. Recent highlights include new inhibitors of metallo-beta lactamases

[Nature Comm., 2016, 7, 121406], ‘dual-targeting’ inhibitors of bacterial DNA gyrase/topoisomerases [Eur J Med Chem, 2014, 86, 31], the first small molecule inhibitors of members of the ribonuclease E family [Sci Rep, 2015, 5, 8028], inhibitors targeting bacterial seryl-tRNA synthetase [J Med Chem, 2019, 62, 21, 9703], development of selective FGFR2 Inhibitors [J Med Chem, 2022, 65, 1481], and use of adhirons to inhibit immune complex binding to Fc-gamma receptor IIIa [PNAS, 2018;115(1):E72-E81].

His research is highly multidisciplinary, with extensive collaborations with colleagues both in the UK and abroad.