People & Achievements

Fellowship Success

Many congratulations to Dr Hannah Stewart on securing her fellowship this year. Hannah was awarded a University Research Fellowship (URF) from the Royal Society to start her own group at Newcastle University, looking at ‘Dual-functionality warheads: A universal route to covalent inhibition beyond cysteine’.

Viva Victories

We celebrated multiple PhD successes! Well done to Clint Gutierrez, Jake Odger, William Thompson, Holly Walker and Nikol Zografou Barredo on passing their PhD vivas! A brilliant reward following years of hard work.

Hello’s & Goodbye’s

We welcomed four new postgraduate researchers to the team: Molly Pattinson and Maxwell Miao (supervised by Dr Celine Cano) and Charlotte Hicks and Liv Gardner (supervised by Dr Hannah Stewart and Professor Mike Waring). A warm welcome also to Viktoria Naydenova and Ioanna Glavina, who, as our new Research Technicians, have already become key members of the team.

New Research Associate Kallie Friston joined in November, with two further RA’s joining us in early 2026.

We bid a fond farewell to Dr Ian Hardcastle, who retired after 25 years as a co-PI in the group. Thank you, Ian, for your dedication and lasting contributions.

We also said goodbye and good luck to Ziwei Jiang, Jack Davison, Grace Roper and Cameron Taylor. Thank you all for your hard work - we wish you every success in your future endeavours.

Science & Infrastructure

Publications

Multiple papers were published over the year, reflecting the hard work of many past and present lab members. Credit to everyone involved and these outputs also highlight strong interdisciplinary collaborations with both internal and external colleagues.

• Covalent alkynylpyridopyrimidinones targeting cysteine 775 of the epidermal growth factor receptor overcome resistance to current therapies (DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5c02924)
• Design and synthesis of a chemically diverse, lead-like DNA-encoded library from sequential amide coupling (DOI: 10.1039/D5MD00350D)
• Improvements in micelle promoted DNA-encoded library synthesis by surfactant optimisation (DOI: 10.1039/D5OB00864F)
• Factors affecting irreversible inhibition of EGFR and influence of chirality on covalent binding (DOI: 10.1038/s42004-025-01501-6)
• Crystallographic fragment screening of CDK2-cyclin A: FragLites map sites of protein-protein interaction (DOI: 10.1016/j.str.2025.07.016)
• Protein-Protein Interaction Inhibitors in Cancer (accepted; due to be published early 2026)

Several additional manuscripts are currently in preparation, so watch out for our outputs in 2026!

Conferences, Away Days & Prizes

Lab members were frequently out and about this year, delivering talks, presenting posters and bringing home prizes! At the 4^th RSC BMCS Anglo-Nordic Medicinal Chemistry Symposium, Nikol Zografou Barredo was awarded the best poster prize (organising committee vote) for her poster 'Small molecule tools to target glucose metabolism in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.'

Our Research in Progress days, Drug Discovery away days and conference trips highlighted not only the quality of our science, but also the strength of our connections with the wider scientific community. With members already booked to attend conferences in 2026, keep an eye out for us and come say hi!

New Equipment

Our new Teledyne LABS ACCQPrep High Performance Liquid Chromatography System arrived, massively boosting our purification capabilities and further complementing systems already in place.

Wider Achievements and Initiatives

Venture Builder Incubator

Well done Ian Hope and Kevin Beverage who are part of the new Venture Builder Incubator cohort! They’re developing TUDELs, a hybrid platform linking fragment insights with DEL-driven design to address discovery bottlenecks across pharma, biotech and academia. Working with Cancer Research Horizons (CRH), the VBI provides a bridge between academic research and commercial success, helping innovators turn their ideas into successful startups.

Sustainability

We achieved Gold LEAF status for sustainability and responsible research practices. Thank you to the members of the in-lab ‘Sustainability Committee’, led by Jennyfer Goujon-Ricci. Your hard work and passion have been key in reaching this milestone.

Fundraising, Outreach and Engagement

We maintained active involvement in outreach initiatives and fundraising efforts for charitable organisations. Our research is critically dependent on funding from Cancer Research UK and we are committed to ‘give back’ via fundraising and sharing our research and its impact with supporters.

Fundraising

• PhD students, Charlie Edleston and Ellie Clarkson completed the iconic Great North Run, raising £811 (incl. Gift Aid) for Cancer Research UK.
• On World Cancer Research Day the group joined researchers across NU Cancer to raise £1,300 for CRUK through bake sales and book stalls.
• Sofya Galimova led the organisation of a bake sale to raise £240 for The Children's Foundation, a small independent children’s charity in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Cancer Research UK and Cancer Research Horizons Related Outreach and Engagement

• Mike Waring appeared on a Drug Discovery World podcast in partnership with Cancer Research Horizons, discussing how academic medicinal chemistry and industry collaboration can accelerate cancer drug discovery and translation.
• We had the pleasure of hosting passionate CRUK fundraisers, campaigners and patient advocates Sue Duncombe and Patrick McGuire, who spoke movingly about their work and what motivates them.
• Those with a keen eye might have spotted some of our chemists pop up in stock pictures used for CRH reports and social media posts. We have also been part of the CRUK #PlaysforLife campaign.
• We welcomed Teleperformance employees to tell them about some of the research taking place across the Drug Discovery Unit and wider NU Cancer Centre and to show them around our lab space, demonstrating firsthand the impact that fundraising has on our research.

Additional Outreach and Engagement

• Faces of Science launched! Born from an idea by Harriet Stanway-Gordon, this project is all about highlighting the human side of science. We’re always looking for volunteers to be featured, so please get in touch at facesofscienceuk@gmail.com or via our pages on LinkedIn, Instagram or BlueSky.
• Several members of our group took part in the inaugural Discover Festival hosted by Newcastle University, helping to deliver a range of exciting science activities. Thank you Thomas Carton, Clint, Jen, Harriet, Elle Watson and Nikol for volunteering.
• As part of the Newcastle University Science Weekend at Beamish Museum, group members helped deliver hands-on, family-friendly chemistry activities, inspiring visitors of all ages.

Looking Ahead to 2026

With new faces, PhD completions (Aaron Mothersole, Charlie, Ellie and Thomas), continued collaborations and exciting projects ahead, 2026 is already shaping up to be a big year. We acknowledge everyone who has been part of the group in 2025, here’s to another year of outstanding chemistry and achievements, both in and out of the lab!