Kurt Lepre recently graduated with a Master’s in Chemical Biology and Drug Design from the University of Leeds.

He was sponsored by the Strategic Educational Pathways Scholarship (STEPS), which is part-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) under Operational Programme II – Cohesion Policy 2007-2013, ‘Empowering People for More Jobs and a Better Quality of Life’.

As part of his course, Mr Lepre focused on both chemical biology and drug design. Chemical biology is the application of chemical tools and ideas to better grasp biological and medical problems. This involved a highly interdisciplinary approach combining knowledge of synthetic chemistry and biology.

He focused mainly on methods by which new drugs emerge with specific biological properties through computational designed or via discovery by screening.

His dissertation involved the synthesis of small molecule drugs with potential use for anti-cancer treatment. These drugs were discovered with the aid of computational design. As part of the project these molecules were tested via a biological testing. Results showed that several molecules were effective as anti-cancer agents, however questions arose on the accuracy of these biological tests.