Prize Fellow in Drug Discovery

University of Bath - Life Sciences

Location:	Bath
Salary:	£47,389 to £56,535 Grade 8
Hours:	Full Time
Contract Type:	Fixed-Term/Contract

Placed On: 10th April 2026
Closes: 26th May 2026
Job Ref: SS13517

Prize Fellowship in Drug Discovery

The Departments of Life Sciences and Chemistry invite applications for a Prize Fellowship in Drug Discovery, an exceptional opportunity for an emerging research leader to develop an independent, internationally recognised programme at the interface of chemistry and biology. The position will be run as a joint appointment across the two departments.

This prestigious Fellowship is aligned with the new Centre for Drug Discovery (CDD), a cross-faculty initiative bringing together chemists, biologists, data scientists and engineers to accelerate drug discovery through innovation in synthesis, screening, computation and translation. CDD will focus on emerging modalities and enabling technologies from cyclic small molecules, peptides, antibodies and macrocycles that explore new 3D chemical space, to AI-guided synthesis, flow automation and direct-to-biology screening. By coupling Bath’s strengths in synthetic chemistry, chemical and structural biology, and advanced delivery science, the Centre will provide a distinctive environment for developing next-generation molecular tools and therapeutic leads.

We seek a creative and collaborative scientist tackling fundamental challenges in contemporary drug discovery, ideally with a strong grounding in chemistry and an interest in applying molecular or computational technologies to biological problems.

While we encourage applications from a range of backgrounds, we particularly welcome candidates whose research aligns with one or more of the following areas:

• Medicinal chemistry for emerging modalities such as peptides, molecular glues, PROTACs, ADCs or covalent inhibitors
• Innovative screening approaches, e.g. DNA-encoded libraries, affinity-selection mass spectrometry, chemoproteomics or AI/ML-driven virtual screening.
• Computational drug discovery including molecular design, macrocycle conformations, docking, or predictive models for permeability & pharmacokinetics.

About the Prize Fellowship

The Bath Prize Fellowship offers three years of protected research time and the opportunity for a permanent academic appointment, subject to performance. Fellows will have access to state-of-the-art laboratories for automation, high-throughput synthesis, compound screening and advanced computation, and will join a vibrant cross-faculty community engaging with industry, the regional GW4 innovation network and opportunity to benefit from the South-West Life Science network.

About Drug Discovery at Bath

Drug discovery at Bath is driven by close integration between Life Sciences and Chemistry, uniting expertise in peptide design, synthetic chemistry, chemoproteomics and computational modelling. Core strengths include chemical and structural biology, pharmacology and antibiotic discovery, with projects spanning early-stage molecular design through to pre-clinical mechanism-of-action studies.

Life Sciences provides cutting-edge laboratories for molecular and cellular biology, microbiology and pharmaceutical sciences, including tissue-culture suites, automated liquid handling and a zebrafish facility for in vivo pharmacology. Chemistry complements this with world-class infrastructure for automated and flow synthesis, compound characterisation (MS, NMR, DReaM Facility) and access to Bath’s High-Performance Computing and AI/ML platforms for virtual screening and molecular design. Both departments have a strong track record in innovation with a number of spin out companies.

Together, these resources offer an exceptional environment for innovative researchers to develop and test new approaches to molecular discovery

Informal enquiries & application

For informal enquiries, please contact:

Dr Scott Lovell, Life Sciences (sdl35@bath.ac.uk) or Dr Alex Cresswell, Chemistry (ajc202@bath.ac.uk);
Co-leads of the Bath Centre for Drug Discovery.

Please ensure applications are submitted via the University’s online system. Alongside the online form, please upload a full CV.

We are committed to providing a supportive & inclusive working environment for all staff, including mentorship and flexible working arrangements. The Departments of Life Science, Chemistry & the University currently hold Athena SWAN Silver awards.