Professor Simon Ward
Director, Medicines Discovery Institute
- wards10@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 6984
- Room 0.24, Main Building
- Welsh speaking
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
Professor Simon Ward is the Sêr Cymru Professor in Translational Drug Discovery and Director of the Medicines Discovery Institute at Cardiff University. The goal of the Institute, which represents a major investment in drug discovery science, is to translate new understanding of disease mechanisms from Cardiff, Wales and internationally into novel therapeutic approaches for patients in need of improved treatment options.
Professor Ward has led multidisciplinary project teams & medicinal chemistry groups from initiation of drug discovery projects through to clinical studies, bringing multiple molecules into clinical development for a wide range of diseases. He has considerable experience of successful in- and out-licencing, due diligence, patent litigation and commercial deal making.
Biography
Professor Ward has an MA in Natural Sciences and PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from Cambridge University, UK. He has a wide ranging experience of drug discovery in both major pharmaceutical companies, biotech & academia (GlaxoSmithKline, BioCrea GmbH, Knoll Pharmaceuticals, Vernalis, Chiroscience, University of Sussex, Cardiff University) and specialist experience of discovering and developing drugs for patients with neurological and psychiatric illness and against cancers. In 2010, after a research career in industry, Professor Ward joined the University of Sussex to initiate a translational drug discovery group, which successfully grew into a centre with over 60 staff and students by raising over £35M for a portfolio of neuroscience and oncology targets.
Professor Ward has the following recent and current external roles:
- Scientific Advisory Board Member, Cancer Therapeutics CRC, Melbourne, Australia
- Member of the Society for Medicines Research
- Panel member, Medical Research Council Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme/Developmental Clinical Studies
- Panel member, Cancer Research UK Small Molecule Expert Review Panel
- Review panel member, Alzheimer’s Research UK Oxford Drug Discovery Institute
- Review panel member, Structural Genomics Consortium
- Member external review panel, LifeArc
- Lead and tutor, Royal Society of Chemistry residential summer school
- Member of advisory board, Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry and Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters, Elsevier
- Joint Editor-in-Chief Comprehensive Medicinal Chemistry Vol III, Elsevier 2017
- Joint Editor The Handbook of Medicinal Chemistry: Principles and Practice, Royal Society of Chemistry 2015
- Member of Society for Neuroscience & American Association of Cancer Research
Simon is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Chartered Chemist and Chartered Scientist (FRSC CChem CSci).
Publications
We are currently unable to retrieve the list of publications. Visit our institutional repository.Professor Ward is Principal Investigator on the following live grant awards:
- LIMK1 inhibitors - A novel, disease-modifying approach for the treatment of fragile X syndrome (Medical Research Council £2.5M)
- Transforming the treatment of schizophrenia: Design and development of AMPA receptor modulators with a much improved safety profile as novel drugs for treating the cognitive dysfunction associated with schizophrenia and other CNS disorders (Wellcome Trust £4M)
- Oncology drug discover portfolio (Wellcome Trust £600k)
Professor Ward is co-Investigator on the following live grant awards:
- MICA - Valium without the sedation: Anxioselective GABAA receptor modulators for the treatment of anxiety disorders (Medical Research Council £3M)
- Alpha-GABAa receptor modulators for the treatment of cognitive impairment associated with Huntington's disease (Wellcome Trust £2M)
- Proof-of-Concept for a5-GABAAR PAMs in the treatment of psychosis (Wellcome Trust £500k)
- Developing small molecules as a neurosteroid replacement strategy for treating postpartum psychosis' (Wellcome Trust £500k)
- Allosteric modulators of extrasynaptic GABAA receptors for the treatment of postpartum depression (MRC – DPFS £650k)
- Inhibitors of serine racemase as novel therapeutic for treatment-resistant depression (Medical Research Council £18k)
- Prodrugs of Protein Targeting Chimeras (PROTACs) With Improved Oral Bioavailability (MRC – CIC £60k)
- Inhibition of acid ceramidase to treat multiple lysosomal storage disorders (Harrington UK Rare Disease £100k)
- MSH3: a disease modifying approach to Huntington's disease (LoQus23 Therapeutics Ltd £500k)
- Transforming Cardiff Translation (Wellcome Trust £320k)