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Claire Simons

Dr Claire Simons

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School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

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Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

I graduated with a BSc (Hons) degree in Chemistry from Kings College London in 1989 and continued at Kings to undertake a PhD in the laboratories of Professor Colin B. Reese on "Studies in the synthesis of ribonucleoside and oligonucleotide analogues".

On completion of my PhD in 1992 I obtained a NIH exchange fellowship and worked at the Michigan Cancer Foundation (now the Karmanos Cancer Institute), Detroit, USA on the synthesis of antiviral allenic derived nucleic acids under the supervision of Dr Jiri Zemlicka.

In 1994 I returned to Europe to take up a postdoctoral position at the Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles, Gif-sur-Yvette, Paris to work on the Taxol project under the supervision of Dr Francoise Kuong-Huu and a postdoctoral position at the University of Leicester in the laboratories of Dr Paul Jenkins involving studies towards the total synthesis of Taxol.

I joined the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences as a lecturer in 1995 and currently hold the position of Senior Lecturer.

Publication

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

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2014

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2003

2001

Articles

Conferences

Research

Member of the School's Medicinal Chemistry research discipline.

Research interests

There are three main areas of research within my group at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences:

  • Cellular differentiation and proliferation - targeting specific enzymes (CYP24 and CYP26) and receptors (PPAR) directed towards the development of therapeutics for the treatment of diseases associated with hyperproliferation e.g. cancers (hormone refractive prostate cancer (HRPC) and neuroblastoma (NBL)) and psoriasis, and as tools for investigating the underlying molecular biology associated with hyperproliferation and neurogenesis.
  • Steroidogenesis - targeting enzymes associated with oestrogen production (primarily CYP19/aromatase) for the development of therapeutic agents for the treatment of hromone dependent breast cancer. Other enzyme targets of interest are 17b-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (17b-HSD) and oestrone sulfatase.
  • Antiinfectives - covering antibacterial (including antimycobacterial) and antiviral agents. Targets include PgP efflux, InhA and P450 enzymes (antibacterial), reverse transcriptase (RT) and DNA polymerase (antiviral - nucleoside mimetics).

Research in my group is multidisciplinary and concerns design, employing computational methods and a range of software, synthesis and in vitro biological evaluation (in-house: CYP19, CYP24, CYP26, 17b-HSD; external collaborations: PPAR, oestrone sulfatase, antiviral and antimycobacterial assays).

Teaching

  • PH1122  The role of the pharmacist in professional practice
  • PH1125  Chemical and biological properties of drug molecules
  • PH2110  Clinical & professionalpharmacy
  • PH2112  Principles of drug design
  • PH3110  Optimisation of pharmaceutical care
  • PH4116  Pharmacy research or scholarship project
  • PH4117  Pharmaceutical sciences, pharmacypractice and the population

Current PhD students

  • Faizah BinJubair
  • Hanadi Asiri
  • Ahmed Eissa