Profile
Matthew Kennedy
My CV
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Education:
Cox Green School, Maidenhead, 2003-2010
University of Oxford, Masters in Chemistry, 2010-2014
University of Oxford, DPhil (PhD) in Organic Chemistry, 2014-2018 -
Qualifications:
GCSEs (all the normal ones plus history, business studies, music and spanish)
A-Levels (chemistry, biology, maths and further maths)
MChem
DPhil (PhD) -
Work History:
Pharmacy Sales Assistant (I worked in a pharmacy while I was at school)
Lab Technician at a local analytical chemistry company
Office assistant at a local analytical chemistry company
Tutor in organic chemistry for biochemists (I taught some 1st year undergraduate students) -
Current Job:
Medicinal chemist
Tutoring chemistry for biochemists to 1st year undergraduate students
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About Me:
I completed by Masters and DPhil degrees in Organic Chemistry and the University of Oxford then became a medicinal chemist.
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I grew up in Maidenhead, Berkshire (close to Reading) and now live in Oxford. I came to the University of Oxford in 2010 and completed a Masters degree then stayed to complete a DPhil in Organic Chemistry. I enjoy playing and watching cricket and also play pool and snooker. In my spare time I am a leader at a local scout group and enjoy the walking and camping.
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As a medicinal chemist I try to make new molecules that may be used to treat a disease. We test each molecule and then try to improve their characteristics to make the perfect medicine.
There are many properties of a molecule that are important if it is to become a successful drug (medicine). Firstly, it must work on the disease you are trying to treat which is fairly obvious. We can test them in assay on whole cells or on its specific target (which might be a single protein or enzyme). The molecule must also be safe and not cause any significant side effects. Other factors that are important are distribution (how the molecule spreads throughout the body), metabolism (how the molecule is broken down by the body) and excretion (how the body expels the molecule from the body).
During my DPhil (PhD) research I made a number of natural products. These are molecules that occur in nature, many of which have interesting biological properties. Often inspiration is taken from these molecules when new medicines are being developed. Aspirin is a great example. The naturally occurring salicylic acid is found in willow bark which used to be applied to the skin to treat fever. However it was found that if it was ingested it cause stomach ulcers. Chemists were able to modify the molecule to minimise this problem and create aspirin (also known as acetylsalicylic acid – they added the ‘acetyl’ part).
I also teach organic chemistry (the chemistry of carbon) to first year university students of Biochemistry.
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My Typical Day:
A typical day involves spending lots of time in the lab attempting to create new molecules and the rest of the time on my computer looking at all the new things we’ve made!
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A chemistry experiment starts off by planning what you want to make and how other people might have made it before. Then in the lab we would setup each experiment and leave then for some time (normally between 1 and 48 hours). After they have finished we put the product in an NMR machine which tells us what we have made. If all goes well this can be used to see if it has the potential to treat a disease or illness using a simple biological test. After we have made a set of molecules we can compare them and see which characteristics are beneficial (better at treating the disease) or make it worse. This allows us to improve the molecule step-by-step.
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My Interview
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What did you want to be after you left school?
No idea - just see what happens...
Were you ever in trouble at school?
I was always late...
What's your favourite food?
Burger and chips
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