Professor Andrew Sutherland he/him

The research passion that drives my group is the design and synthesis of organic molecules that can be used to help people by curing disease. Our main focus is on the development of medical imaging agents that can be used for the diagnosis and prognosis of neurological and cardiovascular diseases, as well as various forms of cancer. One of our PET radionuclide compounds is currently undergoing human trials in a MRC-funded project at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and our hope is that when complete this imaging agent can be used for the diagnosis of a wide range of inflammation-associated disease.

A lot of our research is multi-disciplinary, and we collaborate with life scientists, clinicians and industry. In terms of new potential CDT collaborations, we are interested in using our functional molecules for more device-based applications in sensing, as well as imaging. We also have a fluorescence biomolecule research programme and would be interested in using these for device type applications. For these projects, we would be interested in collaborating with material scientists, physicists and engineers.

I am very passionate about PhD supervision and embedded in my group is a strong mentoring and training programme. This allows students to develop a range of important skills, both scientific and transferable, resulting in researchers with growing confidence and independence. This approach has been highly successful with a 100% completion of PhD students who started in the group (33 to date).

The majority of graduated students from the group have continued with a research career, either in academia or in the pharmaceutical and chemical fine industries. Some have also found employment in the NHS, as teachers and in science-related business.

My PhD supervisor (in the late 1990s) was a women and I was able to see second hand the unconscious and conscious bias in higher education at that time. For this reason, my group has a strong commitment to EDI. Around 65% of PhD graduates from the group have been female. We actively encourage applications from overseas students and have had a diverse group of PhD students from countries around the world. I am also involved in the JMS PhD programme, with a JMS scholar joining the group later this year. In my various administrative roles in chemistry I have been proactive in developing EDI strategies. For example, in my current role as research director, I convened a new research committee based on diverse representation across the school.

Outside the University, my main passion is running. I am a member of the Maryhill Harriers and help run the junior section, which provides structured athletics training for children from Maryhill.