Drug Discovery Unit, University of Dundee

Drug Discovery Unit Tour and Networking BioDundee is delighted to kick of the year of celebrations for #DDUat20 with Networking and a guided tour of the Drug Discovery Unit.

Want to see what we do up close?
Sign up for the tour and networking event with us and #biodundee. See the link for details and tickets!

#DDUat20

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/drug-disco...

🧪 Throughout the day, we will be posting some of the work that we have accomplished for NTDs in those 20 years. Find out more about our portfolio!

🙏 We thank the many partners we work with, especially those committed to developing new treatments for NTDs.
@dndi.org @wellcometrust.bsky.social

YouTube video by Drug Discovery Unit Dundee DDU at 20 | Founders Sir Michael Ferguson & Alan Fairlamb on Past, Present and Future

This is the reason the DDU was established – to support the translation of drug targets into therapeutics. Listen to our founders, Sir Mike Ferguson and Prof. Alan Fairlamb talk about that journey here

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Skb...

Neglected tropical diseases -- GLOBAL Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a diverse group of 20 conditions that are mainly prevalent in tropical areas, where they mostly affect impoverished communities and disproportionately affect wo...

Today is World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day.
The Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are a group of diseases that affect >1 billion people worldwide (~1 in 8 people). Despite this number, treatments and diagnostics are often unsafe and unsuitable, if they even exist.

www.who.int/health-topic...

🤝 Catering partner sought for Dundee pilot: Nourish Scotland is looking for an experienced hospitality business or organisation for #PublicDiner trial.

🗣️ The project offers a subsidy of £240,000 to local businesses and organisations, plus research and partnership support.
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YouTube video by Drug Discovery Unit Dundee DDU at 20 | Founders Sir Michael Ferguson & Alan Fairlamb on Past, Present and Future

As part of our #20thBirthday celebrations, we hear from our cofounders Sir Mike Ferguson and Alan Fairlamb

#ScienceNeverStops

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Skb...

Hello world! I am excited to announce my lab is open at the University of Utah in the Department of Biochemistry. We are looking for scientists at all levels interested in studying host-virus interactions in both bacteria and animals. Come join us in beautiful Utah! (photo is 10 steps from lab)

It's our Birthday!!

Science is pretty!

Seems like a great time to find out about the incredible impact that #HenriettaLacks had on modern science!

Target product profile and discovery and development path for novel cryptococcal disease treatments Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii are World Health Organization critical and medium priority pathogens, respectively. These mainly impac…

Hot off the press: our Target Product Profile to support the development of new medicines to treat #cryptococcal disease:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#cryptococcus, #drugdiscovery, #meningitis

@ddu-dundee.bsky.social, @gsk.bsky.social, @dndi.org and many others 🧪

Good morning sky-friends! We have exciting news today!
Our head of biology Dr @mdr-ddu.bsky.social has been awarded the WH Pierce Global Impact in Microbiology Prize by @amiposts.bsky.social as part of their International Horizon Awards

drugdiscovery.dundee.ac.uk/news/dr-manu...

‘Kissing bug’ disease should be treated as endemic in US, scientists say People in at least eight states have been infected with Chagas, new report says, amid low awareness of disease

#Chagas disease remains very neglected, and not only in the US, in spite of an estimated 8 million people being infected with T. cruzi. We, and our collaborators, aim to develop new medicines, but this is becoming increasingly challenging due to lack of funding.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

A reluctance?

Good morning Bluesky!
We have reached the end of our UNLEASH meeting and are all preparing to head home.
We are full of enthusiasm and renewed purpose, and we look forward to keeping you all updated on our work!

Tell us - what do you want to know about us?

#SciComm #RNA #Splicing

Good morning Sky-Friends!
Our own @biochemtrix.bsky.social (and occasional poster!) is in Germany at the #Unleash consortium meeting. They are joining us here in the sky @unleash-as.bsky.social so follow along to find out about #AlternativeSplicing!

Great opportunity to join our multi-partner collaboration to develop much needed new #antifungal drugs!

#jobs, #drugdiscovery, #Cryptococcus, #Candida

@mrccmm.bsky.social @ddu-dundee.bsky.social @labwyllie.bsky.social @glaxosmithkline.bsky.social

£17.9m research grant to discover new treatments for fungal diseases A team of leading infectious disease scientists from academia and industry have been awarded £17.9 million to identify new drugs to treat fungal infections

Delighted to announce a £17.9 million award from @wellcometrust.bsky.social for the development of new antifungal treatments to a consortium of @ddu-dundee.bsky.social, @labwyllie.bsky.social, @mrccmm.bsky.social and GSK.

#Cryptococcus #Candida #drugdiscovery #antifungal 🧪

tinyurl.com/wywtkpsx

Structure–activity relationships of 1,5-dihydro-2H-benzo[b][1,4]diazepine-2,4(3H)-diones as inhibitors of Trypanosoma cruzi Chagas disease, caused by infection with the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), is responsible for a large health burden with around 6–8 million people infected globally. The current dru...

Great to have a latest #Chagas disease drug discovery paper published in @rsc.org MedChem: pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

This work highlights how we decide to progress or terminate series, and hopefully provides some useful approaches and lessons.

@ddu-dundee.bsky.social 🧪 #NTD #drugdiscovery

Wither: The Many Triumphs and Long Fall of Nuclear Physicist Harriet Brooks. Reading the life of Harriet Brooks is like watching the gradual, inevitable unfolding of a horror movie. There's that same idyllic, promising beginning that suddenly gives way as the heroine puts her...

Nuclear physics pioneer Harriet Brooks was born OTD 149 years ago. The discoverer of Nuclear Recoil, the transmutation of elements through radioactivity, and nuclear series, her productive career was brought short by marriage. Here is her story

tinyurl.com/mvcd3ape

#WomenInSTEM #Physics #HistSci 🧪

Principal Scientist - Computational Chemistry (m/f/d)

Opportunity for computational chemist at Syngenta (Stein Switzerland) #CompChem #cheminformatics #ML #AI #agrochem #ChemJobs #chemsky 🧪
jobs.syngenta.com/job/principa...

Another mystery #WhereisitWednesday picture for you all. Taken probably in the 1920s, this seems to be a road in Broughty Ferry, or possibly towards Monifieth. But aren't sure where it is. Do you have any ideas?

Hormone helps mice live longer and avoid obesity Male mice that make high levels of fibroblast growth factor 21 stay lean as they age — a finding that could translate to humans.

A genetic modification that causes mice to overexpress a particular hormone prevents them from gaining weight and allows them to live longer

https://go.nature.com/4l3rWk2

Happy birthday Jaws! How the movie changed shark science Half a century after its cinematic release, Jaws is still shaping how we view — and protect — the ocean’s top predators.

We're gonna need a bigger boat 🦈

https://go.nature.com/463XAch

Jaws helped spur a fishing frenzy – so how have the world’s sharks fared since the 1975 release? The film made us afraid to go back in the water. It ultimately gave sharks more to fear from us.

50 years on from the release of movie blockbuster Jaws, our shark expert @thesimslab.bsky.social @sotonoceanearth.bsky.social debates the so called 'Jaws effect', charting the fortunes of the 'great white' for @theconversation.com.

Read more 👉 https://tr.ee/5gCSPz

If you’re studying chemistry & anything about graduating is making you anxious – whether that’s finding a job, managing finances, or feeling generally overwhelmed – we’re here for you. ➡️8am – 8pm, Mon–Fri: call 0800 084 3451 (UK Freephone) or +44 1223 853549 (Intl): buff.ly/tCWlE7s #ChemSky #EduSky

🧪 We're beta testing - and we want your thoughts!
Try the redesigned PDBe entry pages & let us know:
🔸 What’s working?
🔸 What’s confusing?
🔸 What features do you miss?

💬 Feedback form: tinyurl.com/pdbe-beta-form

#PDBeBeta #Bioinformatics #Biochemistry #Science #UserVoice

Proposed biosynthetic pathway for assembly of desferrioxamines E and B. Main biosynthetic enzymes presented in bold face. DesG and DesH balance intracellular N-hydroxy-N-succinylcadaverine (HSC) and N-hydroxy-N-acetylcadaverine (HAC) concentrations by converting HSC to HAC. In the absence of DesG and/or DesH, the cells likely fail to produce sufficient levels of HAC, thereby strongly attenuating the production of DFOB. Although DesC has been shown to be able to catalyze the acetylation of N-hydroxycadaverine in vitro, the enzyme can only modestly compensate for the loss of DesH in vivo, underlining the important role played by DesG and DesH in DFOB production.

Despite a century of use in #DrugDiscovery, specialized metabolism continues to amaze. Justin Nodwell explores a @plosbiology.org study that uses a novel computational approach to uncover unsuspected functions of a compound produced by #Streptomyces 🧪 Paper: plos.io/43UVUPB Primer: plos.io/4n25bOF

Do you want to join us to work in neurodevelopmental biology? Please apply 👇 #SEBD

C&EN's Trailblazers

Nominate a chemist with disabilities for C&EN's Trailblazers 2025!

Please tell us about your chemistry heroes, mentors, mentees, and inspirations—or nominate yourself.
👉 cenm.ag/nominatetrai...

#chemsky 🧪 #phdsky #academicsky #STEM #phdchat #academicchatter

Voltage-gated sodium channels

For readers interested in ion channels as drug targets, this Review in the May issue focuses on voltage-gated sodium channels, such as Nav1.8, the target of the first new non-opioid analgesic to be approved in decades
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
rdcu.be/enkq4