As part of our commitment to fostering a culture of knowledge-sharing and lifelong learning within the African drug discovery community, we are proud to present regular live webinars featuring cutting-edge research by scientists from across the globe.
If you missed any of the recent presentations, you can catch up with recordings on our YouTube page. Here is a quick overview of the topics covered in the final quarter of 2025:
How and why Natural Intelligence can expedite the discovery of new antimicrobials with Dr Rob Young
Expanding on his expertise and experience in physical properties, Dr Young has actively reflected on the profound role of nature, natural products, and mimicry in drug discovery. This seminar presents findings based on such thinking and various collaborations, which illustrate the importance of Natural Intelligence in drug design in general, and in anti-microbial drugs and AMR in particular.
Watch here
ASKCOS: Open-Source, Data-driven Synthesis Planning with Jihye Roh
ASKCOS is an open-source software suite designed to support synthesis planning through a range of integrated computer-aided synthesis planning (CASP) tools. In this webinar, Roh, a fourth-year PhD student in Chemical Engineering at MIT and a developer and maintainer of ASKCOS, will introduce the key features of ASKCOS, with a particular focus on the interactive user interface for synthesis planning. She offers a live demo of the ASKCOS web-interface, including the interactive path planner and automatic tree builder for retrosynthesis and tools for complementary forward prediction tasks such as condition recommendation and reaction outcome prediction.
Watch here
Use of free drug concepts in compound optimisation in antimalarial drug discovery with Dr James Duffy
Dr James Duffy is a senior director of drug discovery at Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV). He has a special interest in malaria and other infectious diseases that disproportionately affect vulnerable populations in malaria-endemic countries. At MMV, his work focuses on efforts to develop and deliver new, effective and affordable antimalarial drugs. During this webinar, he draws on his wealth of experience to offer insights into the use of free drug concepts in the optimisation of compounds in antimalarial drug discovery projects.
Watch here.
Screening Smarter: How Library Design Drives Discovery with Dr Kirandeep Samby
In this webinar, Dr Kirandeep Samby, a drug discovery scientist and R&D leader with over 20 years of experience across the pharmaceutical industry, public research institutes, and global health organisations, argues that the probability of converting actives into leads depends on the quality of screening strategy and compound libraries selected for the purpose. By aligning library composition with biological relevance, we can improve hit rates, reduce attrition and accelerate the path from chemical matter to viable leads.
Watch here.
The search for new antimicrobials with Prof Rosemary Dorrington
Prof Rosemary Dorrington (PhD, Microbiology UCT) is the Professor of Microbiology in the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Bioinformatics at Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa and is the Principal Investigator of the SA/UK Antimicrobial Drug Discovery (ADD) Hub. The focus of this talk will be on the Hub’s marine natural products (NPs) discovery pipeline, developed to derive maximum benefit from limited sample biomass. Employing a multi-omics approach facilitates the rapid dereplication of bioactive extracts, enabling the early prioritisation of active NPs for functional characterisation and progression to lead optimisation.
Watch here.
New therapeutic approaches for KSHV-associated malignancies with Prof Adrienne Edkins
In this webinar, Prof Adrienne Edkins shares insights from her research, which focuses on understanding mechanisms of protein homeostasis in health and disease and applying this fundamental knowledge to infectious and non-communicable drug discovery. Edkins is Professor of Biochemistry at Rhodes University and holds a Tier 1 DSTI/NRF South African Research Chair (SARChI).
Watch here.
If you haven’t yet, we invite you to join us for these thought-provoking and inspiring discussions. Keep an eye on our social media profiles and be sure to join our mailing list for regular updates.
Recent Comments