For more than 25 years Vernalis has been working with our collaborators to tackle some of the most challenging therapeutic targets. From protein-protein interactions to novel targets classes, we have developed a deep expertise in helping our partners overcome hurdles enabling drug discovery programs and generate both robust, reliable leads and candidates.
We have extensive experience in expressing and engineering proteins for biophysical and structural studies from multiple expression systems. We develop and apply novel assay technologies and use biophysical methods, including high resolution NMR, mass spectrometry, SPR, ITC and X-ray crystallography, to validate and progress chemical series. Hit-ID methods we employ are fragment-based approaches, biochemical assays, computational methods and, as part of the HitGen Group, cutting-edge DEL technology.
Our medicinal chemistry group has decades of experience in the elaboration of fragment hits towards lead optimisation and candidate selection. We have a dedicated chemistry technology group that has one of the largest Syrris Asia flow chemistry systems in the world which is used for automated synthesis and preparation of large compound libraries.
Additionally, our cell biology and DMPK groups can characterise and support your chemical series through lead optimisation and pre-clinical studies. Our computational chemistry group has access to cutting edge software, develops proprietary in-house machine learning (ML) methodologies and strongly supports the computational chemistry community; the open-source Vernalis KNIME nodes were the most downloaded and used extension in the KNIME community in 2023.
Our robust hit-ID approach enables us to deliver multiple well validated hit series to begin medicinal chemistry campaigns. Through our drug discovery campaigns on some of the most challenging therapeutic targets, we have a deep understanding of the need for well-validated chemical matter and robust biochemical and biophysical platforms to successfully prosecute a drug discovery campaign. Underlying all these approaches is the highest quality protein. Our Protein Science group has extensive expertise in expressing, purifying and engineering proteins from bacterial, yeast, insect cell and mammalian expression systems to produce the best protein for the tasks required. At the heart of our approach is innovation, using expertise to overcome challenges and hurdles to enable robust and reliable drug discovery programmes.
Vernalis can support programs from gene to candidate, and any aspect in between with our established and robust drug discovery platform.
Collaboration structures vary from long term, multi target projects through to short discrete pieces of work. Interested in collaborating? Contact us to learn more about our capabilities and opportunities.
“The Vernalis team was fantastic with troubleshooting problems to deliver on all goals of the project. Consulting frequently with their experts on DEL screens and NMR validation made the project a success, and I would readily work with them again”
Biotech company, short term collaboration
“We collaborate with Vernalis on an integrated drug discovery project where Vernalis has delivered remarkable results against an historically “undruggable” target. The team possesses a powerful blend of creativity and scientific rigor and have been superb colleagues to work with on a personal level. I give Vernalis my highest recommendation and hope to work with them on many projects in the future”
Pharmaceutical company, long term joint collaboration
Dr James Murray has been with Vernalis since 2001 having previously held research roles in the USA and Australia. Throughout this period, James has guided the evolution of our approach to drug discovery, with a particular emphasis on the role of biophysics across a wide range of target classes.
He co-led the discovery of multiple candidates in collaboration with pharma and biotech companies, most notably BH3 mimetics targeting Mcl-1 and Bcl-2. He has over 60 peer reviewed scientific papers and, 13 granted patents and more than 20 active patent applications.
James champions an open and inclusive approach to the Vernalis research culture, which is reflected in how we collaborate.
Clare Searle joined Vernalis as Finance Director in January 2019. She is an accomplished Finance Director and business advisor, with experience in finance, strategy, and operational planning across a broad range of industries. Clare qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2004 and worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers for 16 years, primarily in the Advisory Practice and with a focus on restructuring and turnaround, as well as a number of secondments to multinational corporations and banking institutions. Clare also holds a BSc in Biology and MSc in Allergy and Immunology.
Susan Wallcraft has been General Counsel since October 2019 responsible for dealing with all legal and company secretarial matters. She is an experienced general counsel and company secretary with over 25 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry and health charities. A qualified English solicitor, she did her training and then practised corporate law for several years at a firm in London before moving in-house to roles of increasing responsibility in Parke Davis, Pharmacia and Pfizer and after that was General Counsel and Company Secretary at the Wellcome Trust for several years. She is also a non-executive director of Medicines Discovery Catapult and LifeArc.
Dr Ben Davis is an NMR spectroscopist and biophysicist by training, although since 2022 he has focussed on Business Development. However, he still maintains an active interest in developing new methods to enable Fragment Based Drug Discovery, particularly against challenging targets. Ben studied for his PhD in protein folding with Professor Alan Fersht at Cambridge University, and then studied molecular interactions at UCL before joining RiboTargets, now Vernalis, in 1998. He has contributed to seven books on FBDD since 2012, and has been an author on more than thirty scientific publications. He is a frequent speaker at scientific conferences.
Kerry brings nearly 30 years of drug discovery experience across government, pharmaceutical (MSD and GlaxoSmithKline) and contract research industries (Transpharmation Ltd, Sygnature Discovery Ltd), including 8 years in business development. During this time, Kerry has successfully driven sales growth globally across standalone services and fully integrated drug discovery programmes amounting to £millions per year and fostered key strategic partnerships with biotechs and VCs. Kerry completed her Master’s in Business Administration with the Open University in 2021.
Dr Lisa Baker joined Vernalis in 2001, having previously completed a degree and PhD in Biophysics and a postdoctoral position as a protein crystallographer in the York Structural Biology Laboratory. One of her main interests is in the use of high-throughput crystallographic techniques to solve large volumes of ligand-bound protein crystal structures which can subsequently be used to rapidly progress a fragment-based lead discovery project. Throughout her career, she has solved 1000s of ligand-bound structures which have contributed to the design of candidate compounds for many different therapeutic targets. She is also an experienced project leader leading several collaborative projects in which the project teams delivered nanomolar affinity compounds that have subsequently progressed to lead optimisation and pre-clinical studies.
James Davidson joined the company in 1997; shortly after gaining his PhD from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge.
During his time at Vernalis, he has worked on numerous protein target classes and therapeutic indications and is a co-inventor on over 20 patents. Most recently he led the chemistry efforts on projects targeting Bcl-2 family proteins for cancer.
James is currently the Director of Chemistry; with responsibility for synthetic and medicinal chemistry, as well as computational chemistry and cheminformatics.
