Biography and research overview
Dr Vassilios Bavetsias is a Senior Staff Scientist in the Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery at The Institute of Cancer Research. Dr Bavetsias carried out his undergraduate studies in chemistry at University of Ioannina, Greece, and obtained an MSc in chemical research (awarded with Distinction) at King’s College London. After completing his PhD in medicinal, organic chemistry at the ICR, he continued his research career as a postdoctoral fellow and was appointed to his current position as a Senior Staff Scientist with expertise in organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry.
His research is concerned with the design and synthesis of small molecules as cancer therapeutics and he has led the chemistry component of several multidisciplinary drug discovery projects. He played a significant role in the discovery of compounds that have progressed into preclinical and clinical evaluation, including the alpha-folate receptor-mediated thymidylate synthase (TS) inhibitor ONX 0801 – which is in phase I clinical trial, and the dual FLT3/Aurora kinase inhibitor CCT241736 (in preclinical development).
He is currently the lead chemist in a multidisciplinary epigenetic drug discovery project in collaboration with the Structural Genomics Consortium, University of Oxford and the University of Newcastle. Dr Bavetsias has published around 40 peer-reviewed papers, and is an inventor on 12 patents. He has a strong commitment to training and mentoring of junior researchers, in particular postgraduate students.