People

Dr Anna Barnard – Group Leader

Anna is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and the Insitute of Chemical Biology. 

After graduating with an MChem degree from Durham University, Anna began a PhD in Chemistry with Professor David Smith at the University of York on self-assembling dendrons with applications in gene delivery which included a research visit at the University of Illinois. She then worked as a post-doctoral research associate with Professor Andy Wilson at the University of Leeds for 2 years on the development of novel inhibitors of protein-protein interactions and at Imperial College with Professor Ed Tate for before starting a Junior Research Fellowship at Imperial in October 2015. Between 2019 and 2024 she held a prestigious Sir Henry Dale Fellowship funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Postdoctoral Research Associates

 Dr Petr Sherin - Research Fellow February 2022-Present

I completed my PhD in Novosibirsk, Russia, followed by a posdoc in Geneva, Switzerland (2010-2012). Later I returned to Novosibirsk and was promoted to a permenant group leader position in 2018. As a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow, I joined the Kuimova group in November 2019.

In February 2022, I joined the Barnard and Kuimova groups as a Research Fellow, working on the visualisation of protein-protein interaction inhibition in live cells.

Dr Sachi Sharma - PhD Student 2020 - 2024, PDRA April 2024-Present

I graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry from Queen Mary where I worked on a synthetic project focused on the development of a new palladium-catalysed allylic alkylation process.  I jointed the Fuchter group at Imperial College London as part of my MRes in Drug Discovery and Development, where I worked on developing transmission-blocking drugs as an approach to eradicate malaria.

I completed my PhD with the Barnard group in 2024, working on the target-directed synthesis of helix mimetics co-supervised by Prof Alan Armstrong. Since April 2024, I have been a postdoctoral research associate in the same groups.

Postgraduate students

Amrita Date - PhD Student 2021-Present

I graduated from the University of Mumbai (India) with a Bachelors in Pharmacy. I came to Imperial College in 2019 to do my Masters in Drug Discovery and Development (MRes), during which I worked on the design and synthesis of small molecule inhibitors of REV-ERB, under the supervision of Prof. Matthew Fuchter.

In 2021, I started my PhD with the Barnard group, working on the target profiling of hDM2 inhibitors using chemoproteomics.

Thitiya (Joy) Lasing - PhD Student 2021-Present

I graduated from Chulalongkorn University (Thailand) in 2020 with an MSc in Chemistry. After working as a research assistant at the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Thailand for 6 months, I received the Royal Thai Government Scholarship to start my PhD in Fuchter group at Imperial College London in 2021. Following the Fuchter group move to Oxford in September 2024, I joined the Barnard group for the remainder of my PhD.

My PhD project mainly focuses on developing photoswitchable METTL3/14 inhibitors by using the structure-based drug design approach. I have also been working on making a photoswitchable glucokinase activator (Mike Warring, University of Newcastle) as a side project.

Thomas Mills - PhD Student 2022-Present

I graduated from the University of Oxford in 2022 with an MChem in Chemistry. In my Master's project I worked in the Vallance group, combining mass spectrometry with machine learning to identify patients at high risk of mortality post-heart attack.

Lucy Dan - PhD Student 2023-Present

I received my BSc in Biological Sciences at Durham University. I then completed an MRes in Adam Benham's group at Durham University investigating the role of autophagy in oesophageal adenocarcinoma.

I started a CRUK Convergence Science PhD in October 2023 working with the Barnard, Greber (Institute of Cancer Research) and Barr (MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences) groups. My PhD project investigates the potential for novel p21-disrupting peptides to prevent quiescence and cancer cell resistance to chemotherapy.

Sinead McCann - PhD Student 2023-Present

In July 2022, I graduated from Queen's University Belfast with an MChem degree in Medicinal Chemistry. I completed my Master's research project in the Knipe group where I synthesised a foldamer stabilised through dipolar repulsion.

After graduating, I worked at Pfizer Ireland before starting my PhD in October 2023 in the Barnard and Fuchter groups working on developing photoswitchable stapled peptides as PPI inhibitors.

Aristo Kong - PhD Student 2023-Present

With a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Toronto, I joined Professor Ed Tate’s group as an MRes student at the Imperial College. After two years as a synthetic chemist at Pfizer, I am back at Imperial College now as a PhD student in the Department of Clinical Sciences.

My PhD project focuses on identifying inhibitors for HORMAD1, a meiotic protein with significant implications in oncology. My research project is a collaboration between the Martinez-Perez, Fuchter, and Barnard groups.

Yasmin Gariba-Hamilton - PhD Student 2024-Present

I graduated from King's College London in 2021 with an MSci in Chemistry. Since then, I've been working in industry as a research scientist for a biotechnology start-up, FreshCheck, who make hygiene verification systems for early-stage prevention against microbial outbreaks.

In 2024, I started my PhD with a joint project between FreshCheck and the Barnard Group. I am working on methods for accurate detection and characterisation of siderophores secreted by microbials growing environments conducive to real world settings

Bracha Lawrence - PhD Student 2024-Present

I received an MSci in Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry from Imperial College in 2024. I completed my Master's Research Project with Prof. Alan Armstrong evaluating the use of covalent docking software in drug development.  

My PhD is on the target-directed synthesis of protein-protein interaction inhibitors and is a collaboration between the Barnard, Armstrong and Mann groups. 

Sofia Costa - MRes Student 2024-Present

I graduated from Imperial College London with a BSc in Biochemistry, where I developed a strong interest in structural biology and drug design, particularly in the field of antibiotics. I am currently pursuing an MRes in Drug Discovery and Development, working within the Barnard group in partnership with FreshCheck, a bio-technology start-up. My research focuses on the detection and characterisation of siderophores.

Lily-Mae Zheng - MRes Student 2024-Present

I graduated from UCL in 2023 with a BSc in Chemistry. I am now an MRes in Drug Discovery and Development student at Imperial. For my Master's project, I will be exploring the use of molecular rotors as tools to study protein-protein interactions, working within both the Barnard and Kuimova groups.

Lara Yilmaz - MRes Student 2024-Present

Undergraduate Students

Kira Scobel - MSci Student 2024/25

In October 2021, I started my MSci in Chemistry at Imperial College London. As part of this, I joined the Barnard group for my Masters project in October 2024. My project focuses on the synthesis and characterisation of photoswitchable stapled peptides as PPI inhibitors.

Lingyi Zhang - MSci Student 2024/45

I am currently pursuing an MSci in Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry at Imperial College, where I have developed a strong interest in chemical biology and analytical chemistry. I am now working in the Barnard group on using molecular rotors as probes to study protein-protein interactions.

Jaden Anderson - BSc Student 2024/25

I am a senior(fourth-year) at MIT studying Chemistry and Biology. I will be spending the autumn term as an exchange student here at Imperial College London. At MIT I’ve worked with the Nolan Lab, researching the uptake of natural and synthetic siderophores through transmembrane proteins.

My research project in the Barnard Group is a collaboration between this group and the Nolan Lab, focusing on the effect of siderophore conjugation onto Phd peptide uptake and binding.

Aden Choy - BSc Student 2024/25

I am currently a 3^rd year BSc student at Imperial College London where I've developed an interest in organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry.  I will be working in the Barnard group in the autumn term for my BSc project in forming a small library of helix mimetics by optimising the assembly of known aromatic ester building blocks.

Alumni

Postdoctoral Research Associates

Roshni Malde 2022-2024, Archie Wall 2021-2024, Dennis Worm 2019-2022, Guilherme Vieira de Castro 2019-2022, Fiona Rowan 2017-2018

PhD Students

Carla Aldington (MRes) 2021-2024, Joshua Tomkins 2020-2024, Sachi Sharma 2020-2024, Rashi Kahan (MPhil) 2019-2021, Theo Flack 2015-2019

MRes Students

Yifang Chen 2022/23, Kenneth Li 2022/23, Sofya Rabinovich 2021/22, Phoebe Seltzer 2021/22, Ellie Tardo 2021/22, Simon Ng 2019/20, Shiqi Tang 2019/20, Clara Bernardi 2018/19, Muhammed Haque 2017/18, Yingchao Wang 2016/17, Dan Miles 2016/17, Huda Baldo 2015/16

Undergraduate Project Students (MSci/BSc)

AJ Martin (MSci) 2022/23, Lishen Jiang (MSci) 2020/21, Lucy Haggerty (MSci) 2019/20, Henry Wilson (MSci) 2019/20, Oana Popescu (BSc) 2019, Pete Gobbett (BSc) 2019, Ana Losada de la Lastra (MSci) 2017/18, Hannah Kiely-Collins (MSci) 2017/18, Michelle Tan (MSci) 2015/16

Erasmus/Exchange Students

Ian Warm 2021/22, Rebecca Schouten 2021/22, Raquel Garcia-Ferrer 2020/21, Oliver Fischer 2017, Femke Meijer 2016/17