Dr Sam Thompson
Lecturer in Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry
Dr Sam Thompson joined the School of Chemistry at the University of Southampton in October 2016, as a Lecturer in Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry. His main research area is the use of organic synthesis to address problems in biology and medicine – especially those related to proteins.
Sam Thompson grew up in Lincolnshire and received his MChem from Exeter College, Oxford (2004) spending the final year with Prof. Ben Davis FRS in the historic Dyson Perrins Laboratory. He moved to St Edmund’s College, Cambridge for a PhD (2008) with Dr Martin Smith working on: (i) cascade routes to polycyclic alkaloids; and (ii) enantioselective carbon-carbon bond formation under phase-transfer catalysis. Returning to Oxford in 2009 he did a short medicinal chemistry postdoc sponsored by CRUK with Profs. Steve Davies and Angela Russell aimed at developing small molecule drugs for cancer targets. Between 2010 and 2016 he held Junior Research Fellowships at Pembroke College and Lady Margaret Hall, and was the team leader for the group of Prof. Andrew Hamilton FRS during his tenure as Vice-Chancellor at Oxford. This work was multidisciplinary – bringing together organic synthesis, supramolecular chemistry, and chemical biology to develop new approaches to mediate therapeutically relevant protein-protein interactions. Sam is also a passionate educator having held Lectureships at several Oxford colleges, with particularly strong links to Christ Church, Lady Margaret Hall, and Pembroke. In recognition of these activities he was awarded Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in 2018.