Progress in Medicinal Chemistry

Dr David Witty has more than 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry as a medicinal chemist and project leader working principally in areas of anti-infectives, metabolic diseases, cognition and pain, delivering clinical candidates for several conditions. He led IT Strategy within the Neurology division of GSK, developing and deploying the first Electronic Notebooks for drug discovery to sites in the UK and Singapore. He has contributed more than 90 scientific papers, reviews, patents and books on medicinal and synthetic chemistry.In 2010 David and several colleagues successfully raised $35M in venture funding to found Convergence Pharmaceuticals, a specialist ion channel company focused on the development of novel treatments for pain, based in Cambridge UK. David presently leads their discovery programme and manages scientific operations within the business.David is chairman of the Fine Chemicals Group of the Society of Chemical Industry, with responsibility for the delivery of conferences, seminars and training courses for chemists throughout the UK and Europe, and advising parliamentary bodies on matters of relevance to the UK chemical industry.Since 2008 David has been a STEM ambassador for SETPOINT, introducing school students at both primary and secondary level to the excitement and possibilities of pursuing scientific careers, through workshops, lectures and competitions. Professor Brian Cox is at University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

• 1. Covalent binders in drug discoveryMaria A. Argiriadi, Aleksandra Baranczak, Michael M. Friedman, Julia Gavrilyuk, Adrian D. Hobson, Jonathan J. Hulce, Sami Osman, Noel S. Wilson and Anil Vasudevan2. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosisKlara Valko and Lukasz Ciesla3. Rewriting the (tran)script: Application to spinal muscular atrophyHasane Ratni, Lutz Mueller and Martin Ebeling4. Natural product drug delivery: A special challenge?Neil J. Press, Emilie Joly and Peter Ertl