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Biography
After obtaining an MPharm (Hons) degree from the University of Nottingham in 2003, I spent fourteen months working as a community pharmacist/district manager with Alliance Pharmacy and remain a registered pharmacist with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).
I obtained my PhD from the University of Nottingham 2009, under the supervision of Prof. Barrie Kellam and Prof. Stephen Hill. The work from my PhD formed the basis for a Wellcome Trust Seeding Drug Discovery project focusing on the lead optimisation of new highly selective beta-blockers, which I continued to work on for three years as a post-doctoral research fellow.
I subsequently spent two and a half years as a senior research fellow with Prof. Peter Scammells at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Melbourne, Australia) working on a variety of projects.
I returned to Nottingham in 2014, after appointment as an Assistant Professor in Medicinal Chemistry, within the School of Pharmacy. In addition to my research interests, I teach on the undergraduate Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Scienceprogrammes and am the Course Director for both Postgraduate-Taught programmes offered by the school:
- MSc Drug Discovery and Pharmaceutical Sciences
- MSc Drug Discovery and Pharmaceutical Sciences with Industrial Training (2-year)
Teaching Summary
Undergraduate - MPharm:
B33RPJ (Research Project)
PHAR4012/B34ADD (Advanced Drug Discovery)
PHAR4028 (Current Topics in Pharmaceutical Sciences)
Postgraduate - MSc Drug Discovery and Pharmaceutical Sciences:
PHAR4006/B34FDD - Fundamentals of Drug Discovery
PHAR4008/B34DD1 - Drug Discovery and Development 1
PHAR4010/B34RES - Research Project
Module Convenership:
PHAR4006/B34FDD - Fundamentals of Drug Discovery (30 credits)
PHAR4010/B34RES - Research Project (60 credits)
PHAR4026 - Industrial Research Project with Training in Scientific Research (120 credits)
PHAR4028 - Current Topics in Pharmaceutical Sciences (30 credits)
Research Summary
My group has an interest in the application of synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry. This involves the design, synthesis, purification and characterisation of small molecules and peptides in the… read more
Recent Publications
BIANCA MARIA CASELLA, JAMES P. FARMER, DESISLAVA N. NESHEVA, HUW E. L. WILLIAMS, STEVEN J. CHARLTON, NICHOLAS D. HOLLIDAY, CHARLES A. LAUGHTON and SHAILESH N. MISTRY, 2023. Design, Synthesis, and Application of Fluorescent Ligands Targeting the Intracellular Allosteric Binding Site of the CXC Chemokine Receptor 2 Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. ZHI YUAN KOK, LEIGH A. STODDART, SARAH J. MISTRY, TAMARA A. M. MOCKING, HENRY F. VISCHER, ROB LEURS, STEPHEN J. HILL, SHAILESH N. MISTRY and BARRIE KELLAM, 2022. Optimization of Peptide Linker-Based Fluorescent Ligands for the Histamine H1 Receptor Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 65(12), 8258-8288 SOUKARIEH, FADI, LIU, RUILING, ROMERO, MANUEL, ROBERSTON, SHAUN N, RICHARDSON, WILLIAM, LUCANTO, SIMONE, OTON, EDUARD VICO, QUDUS, NAIM RUHUL, MASHABI, ALAA, GROSSMAN, SCOTT, ALI, SADIQUR, SOU, TOM'AS, KUKAVICA-IBRULJ, IRENA, LEVESQUE, ROGER C, BERGSTR'OM, CHRISTEL A S, HALLIDAY, NIGEL, MISTRY, SHAILESH N, EMSLEY, JONAS, HEEB, STEPHAN, WILLIAMS, PAUL, C'AMARA, MIGUEL and STOCKS, MICHAEL J, 2020. Hit Identification of New Potent PqsR Antagonists as Inhibitors of Quorum Sensing in Planktonic and Biofilm Grown Pseudomonas aeruginosa Frontiers in Chemistry. 8, 204
Current Research
My group has an interest in the application of synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry. This involves the design, synthesis, purification and characterisation of small molecules and peptides in the pursuit of novel drug discovery, or the development of tool compounds. In particular, we have a focus on developing allosteric, orthosteric and bitopic ligands for G Protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and other proteins to understand better how these proteins work. Current GPCR targets of interest are:
- β-adrenoceptors
- C-X-C Chemokine receptor type 2 (CXCR2)
- D2 Dopamine receptor
- M1 Muscarinic receptor
- Nociceptin receptor (NOPR)
- EP2 Prostaglandin receptor
Past Research
My previous work within the drug discovery team at Nottingham focused on the discovery and development of novel, highly selective beta-blockers. Taking compounds discovered during my PhD, we undertook an intensive lead-optimisation programme to develop a number of advanced leads with an improved selectivity profile and ADMET properties compared to existing beta blockers.
At Monash university, I was involved in the discovery and development of novel allosteric ligands for a number of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) targets, including:
- M1 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor
- D2 dopamine receptor
- Calcium-sensing receptor
Through collaboration, we combined our ligand-based approaches with structural and computational techniques, to gain insight into both the locality and mechanism of allosteric interaction at different GPCRs.
Other areas of research include the development of novel inhibitors, targeting multiple enzymes in the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, as a new strategy in the fight against malaria.