21 Aug 2014
Each year, SCI awards scholarships to help members support their studies. Daniel has been just been awarded a scholarship. Here he tells us a bit more about himself.
Daniel was born in Manchester, and studied A Levels at Holy Cross College, Bury. In 2009 he began his undergraduate studies at the University of Manchester. As part of his degree, he spent a year working at the CRUK Drug Discovery Unit at the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research (now the CRUK Manchester Institute). The aim of the placement was to learn and improve upon existing synthetic and organic chemistry skills, towards the preparation of medicinally useful compounds, and grasp an overview of drug discovery research in an industrial setting. On a personal level, he found the year in industry was hugely enjoyable, a real eye opener to the world of medicinal chemistry and the process of drug discovery in terms of team dynamics and strategy, and also resulted in being a named author on two publications (Raoof et al., J. Med. Chem., 2013, 56, 6352-6370; Hitchin et al., MedChemComm, 2013, 4, 1513-1522.). He graduated in July 2013 with a first class MChem degree, winning the SCI award for best industrial experience student.
In September 2013 Daniel returned to the Drug Discovery Unit under the supervision of Dr. Donald Ogilvie and Dr. Allan Jordan, to begin a PhD developing small molecule inhibitors of lysine specific demethylase 1 (LSD1), a protein involved in regulating proteins in the cell nucleus called histones, which in turn are responsible for packaging DNA and controlling how genetic information is decoded. Research has suggested that LSD1 activity becomes unregulated in a number of cancer types. For example, in acute myeloid leukaemia, LSD1 has been found to control stem cell replication and stops the maturation process of stem cells into blood cells, driving the progression of the cancer. In June 2014 he presented his initial findings at the International PhD Student Cancer Conference in Heidelberg, DE.
Outside of the lab, Daniel has recently been busy planning his wedding, in addition to looking after his two rambunctious cats.
Daniel Mould
University of Manchester
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