Jacob Bradbury

Jacob is a DPhil student on the Wellcome Trust Chemistry in Cells programme. Before starting his DPhil, Jacob read for an MSci Natural Sciences (Biology and Chemistry) at the University of Durham, graduating in 2021, and worked as a graduate research assistant at the MRC centre for Medical Mycology, University of Exeter. With a broad background of preclinical and clinical drug development, Jacob now focuses on chemical biology for antibiotic development.

Jacob is most passionate about rational drug discovery and chemical biology. Supervised by Dr. Thomas Lanyon-Hogg (Department of Pharmacology) and Prof. Timothy Walsh (Oxford Ineos Institute, Department of Biology), Jacob designs and synthesises compounds that inhibit the DNA repair pathway and the SOS response, responsible for the development of bacterial resistance. Jacob also designs assays to screen for compound activity and assess compound potency in both DNA repair inhibition and SOS response inhibition. Results fo this work have recently been published in Chemical Science identifying OXF-077, a small molecule found to suppress the evolution of antibiotic resistance in MRSA.

In Hilary Term, 2024, Jacob undertook an internship at the Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP), University of Cambridge, where he explored the interface between science and policy. Jacob is particularly passionate about policy for global health challenges such as AMR.

Jacob tutors Chemical Biology to undergraduates at St John's, as well as demonstrating on practicals for the MSc Pharmacology course. He is also responsible for supervising undergraduate and summer students in the lab.