The Chemistry department gave us the opportunity to attend a lecture about drug discovery through chemical biology at the University of Birmingham. The lecture was around an hour and taught us about the vital role of medicinal chemists and also touched on the economics of the discovery process. We learnt about numerous molecules, including those used in chemotherapy, such as cis-platin, which is a molecule that reacts with DNA bases and forms cross-links, so they cannot replicate.

As well as this, we gained an insight into some of the difficulties regarding curing diseases such as cancers due to there being an estimated value of over 1500 protein targets but only 266 addressed. (Overington et al, 2006) The experience of the lecture gave us a taste as to what university life is like, whilst encouraging us to explore areas of Chemistry outside the curriculum.

Esha and Prabjot in Year 12