Progress in Medicinal Chemistry

Dr David Witty has more than 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry as a medicinal chemist and project leader working principally in areas of anti-infectives, metabolic diseases, cognition and pain, delivering clinical candidates for several conditions. He led IT Strategy within the Neurology division of GSK, developing and deploying the first Electronic Notebooks for drug discovery to sites in the UK and Singapore. He has contributed more than 90 scientific papers, reviews, patents and books on medicinal and synthetic chemistry.In 2010 David and several colleagues successfully raised $35M in venture funding to found Convergence Pharmaceuticals, a specialist ion channel company focused on the development of novel treatments for pain, based in Cambridge UK. David presently leads their discovery programme and manages scientific operations within the business.David is chairman of the Fine Chemicals Group of the Society of Chemical Industry, with responsibility for the delivery of conferences, seminars and training courses for chemists throughout the UK and Europe, and advising parliamentary bodies on matters of relevance to the UK chemical industry.Since 2008 David has been a STEM ambassador for SETPOINT, introducing school students at both primary and secondary level to the excitement and possibilities of pursuing scientific careers, through workshops, lectures and competitions. Professor Brian Cox is at University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

• 1. Discovery and Development of Calcimimetic and Calcilytic CompoundsEdward F. Nemeth, Bradford C. Van Wagenen and Manuel F. Balandrin2. VMAT2 Inhibitors and the Path to Ingrezza (Valbenazine)Nicole D. Harriott, John P. Williams, Evan B. Smith, Haig P. Bozigian and Dimitri E. Grigoriadis3. Current Trends in Macrocyclic Drug Discovery and Beyond-Ro5Sulejman Alihodzic, Mirjana Bukvic, Ivaylo J. Elenkov, Antun Hutinec, Sanja Koštrun, Dijana Pesic, Gordon Saxty, Linda Tomaškovic and Dinko Ziher4. Recent Progress in the Discovery and Development of Small-Molecule Modulators of CFTRPhil R. Kym, Xueqing Wang, Mathieu Pizzonero and Steven E. Van der Plas5. Big Data in Drug DiscoveryNathan Brown, Jean Cambruzzi, Peter J. Cox, Mark Davies, James Dunbar, Dean Plumbley, Matthew A. Sellwood, Aaron Sim, Bryn I. Williams-Jones, Magdalena Zwierzyna and David W. Sheppard