Biography
Dr Gurdip Bhalay joined the ICR in November 2018 as leader of Medicinal Chemistry Group 1, within the Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery, where his group is involved in collaborative research with both internal and external partners.
Dr Bhalay studied chemistry at Nottingham University, completing his PhD in the area of heterocycle synthesis with Professor Ray Jones, before moving to Oxford University for postdoctoral work with Professor Steve Davies in the area of asymmetric chemistry with application to natural product synthesis. After this he joined a newly formed start-up company, Oxford Diversity (now part of Evotec), as one of the first scientists to be recruited developing solid-phase synthesis methodology for Pfizer.
He then moved to Novartis where he spent the next 16 years contributing to and leading drug discovery projects which resulted in the discovery of candidates that progressed to the clinical phase. His last position was at Charles River Early Discovery giving him further project leadership experience in driving drug discovery projects to the clinic as well as a greater commercial awareness in managing projects.
Dr Bhalay is also committed to training and developing the next generation of scientists to help continue the search for new treatments.