PhD Studentship in Medicinal Chemistry: High-throughput Chemistry and Direct-to-Biology Testing to Accelerate Drug Discovery

Award Summary

100% fees covered (home fees only) and a minimum tax-free annual living allowance of £21,805 (2026/27 UKRI rate). Additional project costs will also be provided.

Overview

Discovering a new medicine usually means making and testing candidate drug molecules one at a time, with each cycle of design, synthesis and testing taking months. This project will pioneer a faster way to do this: new chemistry methods that let around 100 candidate compounds be made, purified and tested for biological activity together, in a single operation taking as little as a week. You will apply this new approach to real drug targets in cancer, working at the interface of synthetic chemistry and biology to help speed up the discovery of new medicines.

You will join an established, successful, integrated drug discovery group in a project led by Professor Mike Waring and Dr Hannah Stewart. The group has a strong recent record of PhD completions with 100% subsequent employment, and a supportive, collegial culture. You will gain hands-on training in medicinal and synthetic organic chemistry, automation, high-throughput synthesis and biological testing – skills in high demand across the pharmaceutical industry.

The project is a collaboration with Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals (Boulder, Colorado, USA) and will involve frequent interaction with their scientists, who will co-supervise the project.

Start Date

January 2027

Award Duration

4 years

Sponsor

EPSRC and Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals

Supervisors

Prof. Mike Waring and Dr. Hannah Stewart

Eligibility Criteria

We are adopting a contextual admissions process. This means we will consider other key competencies and experience alongside your academic qualifications. An example can be found here.

A minimum 2:1 Honours degree or international equivalent in a subject relevant to the proposed PhD project is our standard entry, however we place value on prior experience, enthusiasm for research, and the ability to think and work independently.

Excellent Analytical skills and strong verbal and written communication skills are also essential requirements.

A Masters qualification may not be required if you have a minimum 2:1 degree or can evidence alternative experience in a work or research-based project. If you have alternative qualifications or experience, please contact us to discuss flexibilities and request an exemption. 

This studentship is open to Home (UK residency) candidates only.

How To Apply

Please read and complete document  as your Personal statement, and upload this with your application. Applications which do not include this document will not be considered. Further details can be found here. 

You must apply through the University’s Apply to Newcastle Portal 

Once registered select ‘Create a Postgraduate Application’.  

Use ‘Course Search’ to identify your programme of study:

• search for the ‘Course Title’ using the programme code: “8100F”
• select ‘PhD Chemistry (full time) - Chemistry' as the programme of study

 You will then need to provide the following information in the ‘Further Details’ section:

• a ‘Personal Statement’ (this is a mandatory field) – Use this template.
• the studentship code DLA2629a in the ‘Studentship/Partnership Reference’ field.  
• when prompted for how you are providing your research proposal - select ‘Write Proposal’. You should then type in the title of the research project from this advert. You do not need to upload a research proposal.   

You must submit one application per studentship; you cannot apply for multiple studentships on one application.

Contact Details

For further details, contact mike.waring@ncl.ac.uk. You can also contact: doctoral.awards@ncl.ac.uk for independent advice on your application.