Chemistry

The Department of Chemistry undertakes research across the full range of modern chemical science, including several areas with direct relevance to immunology, inflammation and infection. Approaches include chemical biology and proteomics, synthetic chemistry and drug discovery, drug delivery and nanomaterials, methods for vaccine design and manufacture, diagnostic development, artificial cells, glycoprotein biology, antibody engineering, high-resolution imaging, and cell therapy. We also host the Institute of Chemical Biology Centre for Doctoral Training in Chemical Biology and the Imperial MRes in Drug Discovery and Development course, which support a wide range of postgraduate training in immunity and inflammation.

Prominent examples of our work in this space include:

• Development of anti-inflammatory nanomedicines that deliver potent innate inflammation resolving peptides and proteins, with excellent efficacy in a range of chronic inflammatory disease models, including atherosclerosis, IBD (Crohn’s and Colitis, anastomosis), stroke, ischemia reperfusion injury and kidney fibrosis.
• Stimuli-responsive nanogels that can release innate anti-oxidising enzymes and anti-ROS enzymes.
• Designer antibodies using integrated discovery strategies to study and treat neurodegeneration and dementia.
• Establishment of NK:IO Ltd., an Imperial spinout company focused on harnessing the power of natural killer cells for the immunotherapy of cancer, jointly founded by Professor Matt Fuchter (Chemistry) and Professor Hugh Brady (Life Sciences).