SMR
ECR SUB-COMMITTEE
Our mission is to cultivate an inclusive and supportive environment for early career researchers (ECRs) in the field of medicines research. In collaboration with the main SMR committee, we aim to enhance engagement, participation, and opportunities for ECRs at SMR events. We endeavour to provide resources, mentorship, and networking platforms that will aid the ECR community to contribute meaningfully to the advancement of medicines research.
Mr Aitor Carneiro Viqueira
Aitor is a PhD student at The University of Manchester, focused on the development of new synthetic methodologies and their application to chemical biology and drug discovery. Originally from Spain, he completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Santiago de Compostela in 2020, followed by a MSc in Medicinal Chemistry at Cardiff University in 2021.
Dr Elliot Davenport
Elliot is a Senior Scientist at MSD working within Discovery Chemistry. He obtained an MChem in Medicinal and Biological Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh in 2019. His undergraduate studies included a year spent working with Prof. Elena Fernandez at the URV in Tarragona, Spain, and a final year project working on the biomimetic total synthesis of natural products with Prof. Andrew Lawrence. He obtained his PhD in 2023 as part of the GSK/University of Strathclyde Collaborative Programme. During this time, he worked within the Isotope Chemistry team at GSK, Stevenage, developing novel methodologies for the synthesis of isotopically labelled drug molecules. After completing his PhD, Elliot worked as a Synthetic and Medicinal Chemist at Domainex before starting his current role at MSD in 2024.
Dr Efthymios Gavriil
Dr. Efthymios Gavriil obtained his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry in 2018 from the University of Athens. In his PhD, he worked on novel substituted purine isosteres as anti-cancer agents, focusing on kinase inhibitors. Then, during his three-year postdoc at the Drug Discovery Unit of Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, he contributed to the progression of two kinase inhibition projects at the hit-to-lead and lead optimisation stages. In 2022, he joined Prof. Ed Tate’s group at Imperial, as a Research Associate in Medicinal Chemistry and Cancer Drug Discovery. He is currently leading several drug discovery projects in the areas of oncology, immunology and neglected tropical diseases. Efthymios is also a member of ‘PostdoCaRe Europe: The European Network for Postdocs in Cancer Research’.
Dr Robert Hanson
Robert is a postdoctoral researcher at AstraZeneca, based within the Oncology Translational Medicine function. Within this role, he leads multiomic biomarker approaches of oncology clinical trial samples to understand molecular drivers of response and resistance for the DNA repair portfolio. Prior to this role, Robert completed a PhD in Cancer Biology at the University of Cambridge, funded by Cancer Research UK. During his PhD he researched drug combinations in prostate cancer, with a focus on epigenomic biomarkers of response and mechanisms driving drug combination activity.{br}Before pursuing PhD, Robert had a varied background that included academic and industrial research rotations. During his MRes degree at University of Cambridge, he delivered liquid biopsy exploratory studies for urological cancers, as well as in vitro molecular profiling of novel prostate cancer therapies. Prior to this, Robert completed AstraZeneca's R&D graduate scientist programme where he rotated across a broad range of early-stage pharmaceutical R&D functions, including translational genomics, bioinformatics and clinical pharmacology safety sciences. He completed his bachelors degree at Keele University in Biochemistry with Human Biology.
Ms Chloe Oxford
Chloe is an Associate Scientist based at GSK in Stevenage, where she supports early drug discovery projects in the Biology R&D organisation. Chloe joined GSK as a Degree Apprentice in September 2020, and is due to complete her BSc in Applied Bioscience in July 2025. Chloe is an active STEM ambassador and member of the GSK Stevenage STEM committee with a passion for inspiring the next generation into scientific careers through organising careers fairs and work experience events. Chloe has joined the SMR Early Career Researcher (ECR) subcommittee as she is enthusiastic about the development of early career professionals and students in the scientific research community. She is excited about working with the subcommittee to increase engagement of ECR’s at SMR events and collaborating with other scientists across industry and academia.
Dr Jess Stacey
Jess Stacey completed an MChem with an Industrial Placement from Newcastle University in 2017, where she first was introduced to chemoinformatics at her placement with MedChemica. Jess then went to Sheffield to undertake a PhD in chemoinformatics under the supervision of Professor Val Gillet and Stephen Pickett (GSK), which entitled “Data Mining for Lead Optimisation”. In November 2022 she returned to MedChemica. Since then, she has created a matched molecular pair scaffold hopping tool, CoreDesign®. For the past year Jess has been part of the ASAP consortium where she has been designing new compounds within the lead optimisation stage, which has led her to her most recent work on time series analysis of the SAR around the most promising scaffold.
