Events

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.

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.