Sophie started her undergraduate degree at the University of Liverpool in 2014, specialising in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology. During Sophie’s time as an undergraduate student, she undertook research projects which focused on the development of novel drug candidates for the treatment of malaria, triple negative breast cancer and for infections caused by the opportunistic fungal pathogen Cryptoccocus neoformans.

 

Sophie graduated in 2018 with a first-class master’s degree and was also awarded the Syngenta prize for pharmacology. Following this, she carried out a PhD (2018-2022) at the University of Liverpool within the medicinal chemistry research team, led by Professor Paul O’Neill. Her PhD research involved the synthesis and biological evaluation of novel derivatives of the approved anti-infective prodrug, Nitazoxanide for the treatment of respiratory viruses and tuberculosis.

 

Sophie has now joined the Rannard group as an organic chemist responsible for the synthesis of novel prodrugs for processing forward into therapeutic candidates funded by the EPSRC.