Fragment-Based Lead Discovery: Issues and Applications

Ben Davis, Research Fellow

Ben Davis studied protein structure and folding for his PhD with Professor Alan Fersht at Cambridge University, before moving to Dr Paul Driscoll’s group at University College London where he studied protein-ligand interactions by NMR. In 1998 he joined RiboTargets, a biotech company formed out of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge,where he worked on applying structure based drug discovery techniques to a variety of RNA and protein targets. In 2003 RiboTargets became Vernalis R&D, and concentrated research on protein targets. Since 2001, he has been focussed on the development of the fragment based lead discovery (FBLD) technology, and the application of FBLD methods to a wide range of therapeutic targets. Vernalis currently has a number of compounds derived from FBLD in Phase I and II clinical trials.