Christopher Brain

Director

Chris received a BA in chemistry from the University of Oxford and gained a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Manchester in the group of Professor EJ Thomas. In 1996, he joined the Novartis Institute for Medical Science (NIMS) at University College London to work as a medicinal chemist on drug discovery programs in the neuroscience disease area, specifically chronic pain. In 2005, he moved across the Atlantic to the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a member of the Global Discovery Chemistry group. Here, he co-led the Novartis CDK4/6 drug discovery program from its inception. This program resulted in the discovery of ribociclib (Kisqali), which was first approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in March 2017, for the treatment of HR+ve/HER2-ve advanced breast cancer. In addition to neuroscience and oncology, Chris has led and contributed broadly to the science of drug discovery across NIBR including ophthalmology, immunology, and metabolic disease areas, as well as with external academic and commercial collaborators.

Talks About
#discovery #chemistry

Preferred Locations
#Northamerica