PhD Opportunities in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in United Kingdom

[4-year fully funded Norwich Research Park Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership PhD studentship including payment of tuition fees, a stipend for living expenses at the 2026/27 rate of £21,805, and a Research Training Support Grant of £5,000 per year.] This fully funded PhD studentship at the University of East Anglia is hosted within the Norwich Research Park Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership and focuses on chemical biology approaches to tackling antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The p...

PhD opportunity at Cardiff University in chemical biology , medicinal chemistry , and drug discovery , focused on developing selective chemical probes for TFEB/TFE3. The project aims to uncover the distinct roles of TFEB and TFE3 in lysosomal gene regulation and to study the consequences of inhibiting these transcription factors. The research combines biochemical and cellular assay development, high-throughput screening, computational chemistry, and structure-guided medicinal chemistry to discov...

📢 A fully funded PhD studentship is available in the group of Daniele Castagnolo at University College London (UCL), jointly supervised with Dr Dimitrios Evangelopoulos, through the 2027 cohort of the CDT in Engineering Solutions for Antimicrobial Resistance (CDT AMR). The project will focus on the development of novel antibacterial agents to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR), bringing together medicinal chemistry, drug discovery, microbiology, and biocatalysis. Research will be based primar...

Newcastle University is advertising a fully funded 4-year PhD opportunity in medicinal chemistry and cancer drug discovery through the CRUK Black Leaders in Cancer PhD Scholarship Programme , delivered with Black in Cancer and the Windsor Fellowship . The project is titled “Development of DNA-PK-targeting PROTACs as a new therapy for advanced prostate patients” and is supervised by Prof Céline Cano and Dr Luke Gaughan at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom . This opportunity focuses on pr...

PhD project in chemical biology and microbiology focused on developing new ways to target bacteria by disrupting essential cell division protein interactions . The project addresses the urgent problem of antibiotic resistance and aims to design, synthesise, and test compounds that block protein-protein interactions needed for bacterial growth and spread. The work uses Mycobacterium smegmatis as a harmless model for Mycobacterium tuberculosis , with an emphasis on discovering peptide-based or rel...

Funded PhD project at the University of Edinburgh on peptide-based precision anti-infectives for the prophylaxis and prevention of foodborne listeriosis . The project focuses on Listeria monocytogenes , a major foodborne pathogen, and explores a novel anti-virulence strategy targeting the bacterial regulator PrfA . Building on structural and functional discoveries from the Vázquez-Boland group, the PhD will design, synthesise, and evaluate peptide-based PrfA inhibitors as potential Listeria-targ...

Funded PhD project in telomere biology , cancer biology , peptide design , protein biochemistry , molecular biology , cell biology , and synthetic/pharmaceutical chemistry at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences and Imperial College London in London, United Kingdom . The project asks how cells replicate chromosome ends while preserving telomere protection. You will study the shelterin complex, TRF2 interactions, and the origin recognition complex (ORC), with a focus on how disrupting these int...

PhD opportunity at the University of St Andrews in the School of Biology / School of Chemistry, working on design, synthesis, and mechanism of action of inhibitors of the human enzyme DNPH1 (2′-deoxynucleoside 5′-phosphate N-hydrolase 1). This project sits at the interface of Biochemistry , Structural Biology , Medicinal Chemistry , Organic Synthesis , and Chemical Biology . DNPH1 is a nucleotide-sanitizing enzyme, and the project aims to design potent and selective inhibitors and elucidate how ...

Industry-based PhD studentship at GSK R&D in collaboration with the University of Strathclyde, Department of Chemistry . The programme, titled “Building a Career in Drug Discovery at GSK” , offers PhD research in medicinal chemistry , chemical biology , or structural biophysics and in silico modelling . The project is co-supervised by Strathclyde chemistry academics and a senior GSK scientist, with research aligned to modern drug discovery. Research themes include design and development of moder...