Pharmacy
Research Division

The Division hosts a variety of events and seminars throughout the year. Find out more on our events calendar.

DASHing towards faster drug discovery

Initially developed by Reading Pharmacy professor Kenneth Shankland over 20 years ago, DASH is computer software that helps academic and industry scientists to solve the crystal structures of molecular materials faster and more reliably than ever before. It is an indispensable tool for developing everything from food additives, dyes and fertilisers to new medicines. A new, more powerful version of the software called DASH 3.3.7 created in 2017 has helped major drug companies to identify drug candidates with less favourable crystal structures at an earlier stage, thus saving development time and resources and helping more new medicines reach patients more quickly. Find out more in the case study. 

Cannabis-derived drugs for epilepsy

Epidiolex (cannabidiol), a new cannabis-derived drug for two rare forms of childhood epilepsy was approved for use on the NHS in 2019, as well as in Europe and the USA in 2018, thanks to over a decade's work by Reading researchers. The pharmaceutical company GW Pharmaceuticals has funded the team, which includes Professor Gary Stephens from Pharmacy, since 2007 to investigate how compounds from the cannabis herb can be used to treat epilepsy. Cannabis contains more than 400 different compounds, only one of which, called THC, causes the ‘high’ associated with recreational cannabis use.  Read the full story of the drug's discovery and development at the University of Reading. 

Saving lives from snakebite

Each year, snakebites kill around 150,000 people and Reading pharmacologist Professor Sakthi Vaiyapuri is on a mission to change that. His research concerns platelets, the component of our blood responsible for clotting, and one aspect of his work is studying the effects of snake venom on this process. Alongside working on potential new small-molecule treatments for snakebite in the lab, Sakthi and his PhD student Harry Williams are developing a simple antibody-based diagnostic test, similar to a pregnancy or HIV test, which can quickly determine the type of snake that has bitten a person from a drop of their blood or urine. In practice, this would allow a bitten person to receive the correct treatment as quickly as possible. Sakthi hopes that the cheap-to-produce kits could ultimately be kept in local pharmacies. Alongside his research he is also leading a major public awareness campaign in Tamil Nadu 

Medicines: challenging the throwaway culture

Professor Parastou Donyai has surveyed the public on their opinions about medication reuse: the idea that medication returned by one patient can be dispensed by a pharmacist to another patient. Her research findings suggests that the public are supportive about re-using unopened medicines and the environmental benefits this could have and would trust pharmacists to decide which medicines could be reissued. Over half of the 1,003 people surveyed wanted to re-use medication in the future. The others would potentially agree to re-use medicines if their questions were answered and the process was clear and well controlled. In particular, people wanted to see safeguards against fake medicines, or those that had been tampered with. Read more on our research blog.

Investigating the early causes of dementia

Glia are cells which support the neurons in the brain and keep the brain stuck together. Professor Mark Dallas is investigating whether damage or changes to these cells decades before the first symptoms of dementia appear could hold clues for early treatment, diagnosis or prevention of the disease. See him explain more about his work in this video made to support his 2018 public lecture, ‘Brain Glue: Sticking it to dementia’.

Light switch molecules to diagnose disease

Dr James Hall’s research uses X-ray crystallography to focus on the structure of nucleic acids – the ‘molecules of life’ which contain the genetic information for living things – and how they become damaged. In March 2018 he won a Research Outputs prize for his 2016 paper which the judges said offered “a new hypothesis into DNA-probe binding with significant applications for future diagnostics”. Find out more.

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Our staff carry out research on Pharmacy Practice, Pharmaceutics & Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmacology. For specific enquiries, please contact the Pharmacy Research Division Lead:

Dr Darius Widera

d.widera@reading.ac.uk

The School of Pharmacy runs an MSc by Research programme, with options in pharmaceutics, neuroscience and pharmacy practice. There are also regular funded PhD opportunities as well as projects available for self-funded PhD students.

MSc by Research Programmes in Pharmacy

PhD programmes