Proton coupled transporters in health and disease

Many of the systems responsible for absorbing nutrients from our diet, such as protein, fat, vitamins and sugars, are also responsible for the uptake of tablet-based medicines, such as antibiotics, antiviral and anticancer drugs. Many medicines are not as effective as they could because of poor intestinal absorption or rapid breakdown and excretion in our urine. 

I want to advance our understanding of how drugs enter our body and target specific sites of disease. I will reveal how proteins recognise drug molecules and provide a blueprint to improve their effectiveness using advanced imaging techniques. 

This research will explain how drugs enter the human body and target specific organs. The insights revealed will advance our understanding of basic cell biochemistry and enable a range of more efficient antivirals, antibiotics and chemotherapy agents to be developed.