G. Benjamin Morris

Computational Drug Design in G-Protein Coupled Receptors. A Hierarchical Approach.

Due to the lack of availability of GPCR structures, there is a need for high quality GPCR modelling to guide medicinal chemistry. My work is in collaboration with Evotec who have developed a GPCR modelling platform. My work focuses on improving various aspects of this platform, and using that in conjunction with simulation methodologies, to rationalize drug-development against several drug targets.
I work closely with Dr. Alexander Heifetz who is a Royal Society Industry Fellow, and a Principal Scientist in the computational group of Evotec.

My research is funded by the BBSRC and Evotec in the form of a CASE studentship.

Background

I completed a BSc in chemistry at the University of Bristol in 2011. For my undergraduate research project in my final year I worked with Dr. Christopher Woods, in the Mulholland Group, using MC and MD methods to calculate absolute binding free energies.

I joined the Biggin Group in October 2011 as a DPhil student. I am a graduate student at Lady Margaret Hall.

Publications

1. Study of Human Orexin-1 and -2 G-Protein-Coupled Receptors with Novel and Published Antagonists by Modeling, Molecular Dynamics Simulations, and Site-Directed Mutagenesis.
   Heifetz, A., Morris, G.B., Biggin, P.C., Barker, O., Fryatt, T. Bentley, J., Hallett, D., Manikowski, D., Pal, S. , Reifegerste, R., Slack, M. and Law R.
   Biochemistry (2012) (PMID: 22448975)