Gajan Santhakumar, Ph.D.

Associate Principal Scientist, Early Chemical Development at AstraZeneca

Speaker

Gajan graduated from the University of York in 2010. His final year was carried out at F.Hoffmann La Roche AG looking at potential therapeutics towards CNS related diseases. In 2011 he was awarded a Henry Bertie and Florence Mabel Gritton Research Scholarship to undertake his PhD at the University of Sydney under the supervision of Prof. Richard Payne, where his research focussed on the total synthesis of non-ribosomal peptide natural products. After his PhD he undertook postdoctoral research positions at the University of Melbourne and Imperial College London before moving into industry working for Sygnature Discovery. In 2020 Gajan joined AstraZeneca as a peptide and oligonucleotide chemist within Early Chemical Development, delivering drug substance for use up to Ph2b clinical trials.