meet the team

dr Tryfon Zarganis-Tzitzikas

Tryfon earned his B.Sc. in Chemistry from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, in 2010. He subsequently completed his M.Sc. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, summa cum laude, in 2012 under the supervision of Prof. J. Stephanidou-Stephanatou at the same institution. In 2017, he was awarded a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry, cum laude, from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, under the guidance of Prof. Alexander Dömling in the Group of Drug Design. His thesis focused on Innovative Multicomponent Reactions and their Use in Medicinal Chemistry.

Following his Ph.D., Tryfon joined Syncom B.V. (now Symeres) as a medicinal chemist, contributing to an immuno-oncology project in collaboration with the University of Groningen. From 2014 to 2022, he served as the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of TelesisPharma B.V., a Groningen-based company dedicated to developing novel synthetic routes to APIs using multicomponent reactions.

In December 2018, Tryfon joined Prof. Paul Brennan’s group at the Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK) Oxford Drug Discovery Institute (ODDI), University of Oxford, UK, as a postdoctoral scientist. His research focused on developing new treatments for dementia. As of June 2024, he holds the position of Head of Chemistry at the ARUK-ODDI.

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dr Katherine England

Katherine completed an M.Chem. degree at the University of Oxford, working under the supervision of Prof. Jeremy Robertson for her final year research project. In 2002, she joined the Medicinal Chemistry department at Pfizer in Sandwich, UK, where she worked in drug discovery across a variety of disease areas and drug classes. Katherine joined the Structural Genomics Consortium at the University of Oxford in 2011, where she designed and synthesized inhibitors of epigenetic proteins and was awarded a D.Phil. in Organic Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Christopher Schofield and Prof. Paul Brennan.

In 2015, she joined the newly formed ARUK-ODDI, where she is part of a multi-disciplinary research team working on target identification and drug discovery for dementia. Since then, Katherine has taken on a role of chemistry Team Leader in the ARUK-ODDI.

DR SHEENAGH AIKEN

Sheenagh studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, undertaking a summer studentship in medicinal chemistry at the Institute of Cancer Research. This was followed by an MSc in Chemical Research at Queen’s University Belfast (the synthesis of cationic lipids as gene delivery vectors supervised by Dr William P. D. Goldring) and work at Redx Pharma, synthesising small molecules for oncology and immuno-oncology targets.

Sheenagh’s doctoral research on the application of lithiation-borylation methodology to the total synthesis of complex polyketide natural products was supervised by Professor Varinder K. Aggarwal at the University of Bristol. She then stayed in Bristol as a postdoc in the Aggarwal group and then working with Professor Tim Gallagher, before joining the Brennan group in May 2023 for a postdoc co-supervised by Professor Yang Shi at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, towards the development of novel chemical probes for RNA m6A methyltransferase enzymes. As part of this project she had the opportunity to spend 6 weeks as a visiting researcher with Dr Paola Arimondo at Institut Pasteur Paris.

In January 2025, Sheenagh took on a role of chemistry Team Leader in the ARUK-ODDI.

post-doctoral researchers

Dr laura ortega varga

Laura completed her Pharmacy studies at the University of Salamanca (Spain) and received a scholarship to be trained at Lilly Alcobendas R&D’s Medicinal Chemistry Department.

She obtained her MSc in Drug Discovery and Development from Complutense University, UAH and CEU Madrid and joined the Computational Chemical Biology Group (CIB-CSIC, Madrid) as a Postgraduate Researcher.

She was awarded a Marie Skłodowska -Curie fellowship for early stage researchers to carry out her PhD within the AEGIS ITN in the Structural Bioinformatics Unit at the Institut Pasteur in Paris with secondments at the ETH Zurich and AstraZeneca Gothenburg site. 

After obtaining her PhD from Sorbonne University, she continued her career at Institut Pasteur’s Structural Bioinformatics Unit before joining Paul Brennan's group and the ARUK-ODDI in 2021 as a computational chemist.

DR Mia Callens

Mia graduated from the University of Leeds having completed her MChem in Medicinal Chemistry. During this time, she spent a year working within Process Chemistry at GSK, Stevenage, investigating alternative synthetic routes to drug intermediates. She then completed her final MChem project under the supervision of Professor Adam Nelson, working on the discovery of novel kinase inhibitors using an activity-directed synthesis approach.

Mia then completed her DPhil through the Synthesis for Biology and Medicine CDT in the Brennan Group, working towards the development of chemical probes for Rho GEF/GTPase complexes. At this time she also spent 3 months at Vertex Pharmaceuticals working on high-throughput electrochemical functionalisation of medicinally relevant heterocycles.

Mia now works as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the ARUK-ODDI. In her spare time, Mia enjoys reading, reading movie reviews on Letterboxd, and (speed) cubing.

Dr gonzalo vera namuncura

Gonzalo completed his PhD in medicinal chemistry at the Pontifica Universidad Católica de Chile (under the supervisión of Prof. Gonzalo Recabarren) in 2019. Late that year, he joined the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherche sur le Médicament de Normandie (CERMN) as a postdoctoral fellow, were he worked in the development of a new radiotracers regarding Alzheimer’s disease under the supervisión of the Prof. Valerie Collot . In 2020 he joined the group of Dr Fatima El Garah at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Toulouse, France, were he worked on the synthesis of novel compounds for the development of new antiobiotic therapies.

In 2022, he joined the ARUK-ODDI, where he is part of a multi-disciplinary research team working on target identification and drug discovery for dementia.

dr lukas scheibelberger

Lukas obtained his Masters and doctorate in Organic Chemistry from the University of Vienna. During his PhD project, he worked on the synthesis of fluorinated carbohydrates. He also had the opportunity to work as an Erasmus intern at the University of Gothenburg. His travels has taken him all the way to Bangkok, Thailand, where he worked as an IAESTE intern in the King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology.

dr lisa dollhopf

Lisa graduated from the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich with a bachelors degree in Biochemistry and Chemistry, before completing her masters and PhD with Matt Fuchter at Imperial College, London, with a specialism in organic chemistry and photopharmacology.

She currently works on the development of influenza antivirals in a project funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, as part of the pandemic antiviral discovery (PAD) initiative.

Research Assistants

ethan chidlow

Ethan completed his bachelor’s degree in Medicinal Chemistry and Human Biology at Keele University with his final-year project focusing on a molecular docking approach and series of small molecules syntheses to identify potential inhibitors of L. donovanii galactokinase. He then went on to complete a Masters by Research also at Keele University where he focused on the synthesis of nucleoside analogues with covalent warheads for the inhibition of GMD from P. aeruginosa.

He currently works in the medicinal chemistry team at the ARUK-ODDI.

doctoral Students

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Thomas Grimes

Tom graduated from Durham University in 2017 with an MChem degree in Chemistry. He spent the final year of his degree within the epigenetics department at GSK in Stevenage working on the "Synthesis and bioactivity of BET bromodomain inhibitors." Following his degree, Tom worked for two years as a Research Scientist for AMRI based at the Eli Lilly Erl Wood site. He provided synthetic organic chemistry support for a wide variety of Eli Lilly and Elanco projects.

Tom joined the Brennan Group in July 2019 to work as part of the ARUK-ODDI.

Amber truepenny

Amber received her MNatSc (Industrial) in Natural Sciences from the University of Leeds, majoring in Chemistry with Biochemistry. She spent her Industrial Placement year at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Oxfordshire as part of the Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK) team and undertook a summer internship at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam as part of the Emerging Infections (EI) group under Dr Le Van Tan. Her Master’s project centred on the design and synthesis of novel inhibitors of an aminopeptidase for the treatment of malaria, co-supervised by Dr Richard Foster and Professor Elwyn Isaac.

She joined the Wellcome Trust Chemistry in Cells DPhil programme in 2020 and is currently undertaking a DPhil project under the co-supervision of Professors Paul Brennan and Benedikt Kessler, developing DUBTACs to increase protein levels.

Matthew holland

Matthew read Natural Sciences at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, specialising in chemistry. He did his fourth year project in the group of the late Professor Chris Abell FRS using fragment-based approaches to target MurB from P. aeruginosa. Matthew is part of the SABS R3 Doctoral Training Programme, and his DPhil project looks at using software tools to discover new bioisosteric replacements of key pharmaceutical heterocycles. Matthew is co-supervised by Dr Fernanda Duarte in the Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory.

Outside of the lab, he enjoys choral singing as part of the Merton College Choir, national and international rowing, wine tasting, and watching opera and ballet.

evmorfia dalietou

Evmorfia (Eva) graduated in 2020 with a MPharm from the University of Athens. She completed her masters project at the University of Vienna under the supervision of Thierry Langer, working on antiviral agents against Chikungunya virus. Since then, she has been enrolled in the Interdisciplinary Bioscience BBSRC DTP, co-supervised by Alex Bullock.

In her spare time, Eva is often found at gigs, and music festivals, and has an impressive collection of vinyls.

Hadeel Abozenadah

Originally from Saudi Arabia, Hadeel took her bachelor’s degree in Medicinal chemistry and pharmacology at Western Oregon University, USA and her master’s degree in Drug Chemistry at Newcastle University.


Hadeel is currently studying for her DPhil in Clinical Medicine. Her work is focusing on developing a new inhibitor for Nuropillin-1, a cell-surface co-receptor for several different growths factors that can be used for the treatment of Alzheimer disease.

Leonard lee

Leonard (Lenny) is completed his MBiochem at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford. During his fourth year project with Christopher Schofield, he worked towards developing respiratory stimulants for the treatment of COVID-19. After graduating in 2021, he took a gap year, during which he worked in software development, trained for an Ironman triathlon, and travelled across South America.

Lenny is currently working towards his DPhil as part of the Wellcome Trust Chemistry in Cells DTP, co-supervised by Yin Dong at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences. His DPhil project is focused on developing allosteric modulators of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.

In his spare time, Lenny can be found running around Oxford and training for triathlons.

amelia henley

Amelia earned her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Harvard University in 2020, during which she completed an internship in the medicinal chemistry department at Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Following her graduation, Amelia worked as a co-op at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where she developed computational chemistry methods for data analysis and the prediction of isomerization energies of atropisomers. She then spent three years as a research scientist, contributing to various medicinal chemistry projects focused on developing small molecule inhibitors for a range of rare genetic diseases.

Currently, Amelia is pursuing DPhil studies in the development of chemical probes for GEF/GTPases. Outside of research, she enjoys playing squash and traveling.

Matthew fry

Matthew completed his MChem at the University of St. Andrews, during which he also completed an industrial placement at Roche in Basel, Switzerland, working on hit-to-lead optimisation. He is currently enrolled in the Synthesis for Biology and Medicine CDT, co-supervised by Mike Willis, and is working on developing PROTACs targeting small GTPase complexes.

In his spare time, Matthew can be found shooting hoops at the basketball court, juggling, and cooking.

Alice page

Alice completed her MChem at The University of York. During her master's year, she completed an industrial placement at Astrazeneca working in chemical development. Her master's research focused on the process development of a mineralocorticoid-receptor modulator, due to be used as a heart failure treatment. She worked on designing and optimising the synthetic route of an intermediate in the overall synthesis, ahead of a large-scale manufacture. She also completed a summer internship working as an analyst using mass spectrometry. After finishing her degree, she took a year out to travel around Southeast Asia and Australia.

Currently Alice is doing her DPhil as part of the chemistry in cells programme, supervised by Paul Brennan and Kilian Huber. The project is in collaboration with Vertex, with supervisors Duncan Hay and David Hewings and is focused on using high-throughput chemistry to enable cellular fragment screening

In her free time, she enjoys socialising with friends, visiting restaurants, and going on walks - especially anywhere near the coast.

ryan demel

Ryan graduated with his Bachelors in biochemistry from Royal Holloway, University of London in 2022. He completed a summer internship at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Frank von Delft, before completing his MSc. in Pharmacology at Oxford. After graduating, he gained experience working in diverse roles at Syngenta, the NHS, and Johnson & Johnson, before starting his doctoral studies at Oxford, enrolling in the SABS:R3 CDT.

During his free time, he can be found in the dojo, training his skills as a Judoka.

Samuel Gavronski

Samuel earned his B.A. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated summa cum laude, and with membership in Phi Beta Kappa academic honour society in 2022. Throughout his Bachelors, he gained diverse experience, assuming intern and research assistant roles at Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. He eventually moved to the UK in 2023 to complete his MPhil in studying the modulations of the c-GAS-STING sensing pathway by human cytomegalovirus at the University of Cambridge. Samuel is currently pursuing his DPhil in Clinical Medicine, specifically investigating peptide-based antiviral therapy design against influenza neuraminidase protein, co-supervised by Annette von Delft, Jon Elkins, Pramila Rijal, and Alain Townsend.

He can often be found in the West End, enjoying the theatre and musicals.

Masters and Visiting Students

Zhihe (Annie) Lei

Annie is currently reading Chemistry at Jesus College, Oxford. She joined the Brennan Group in the summer of 2023 as a summer intern and returned in 2024 to complete her final year project, which is focused on the development of synthetically accessible covalent inhibitors of Rho-GTPases.

chihiro kinumaki

Chihiro is a Chemistry student at Queen’s College, Oxford, where she is supported by a Yanai Tadashi Foundation scholarship. Her final year project focuses on the development of bifunctional m6A methyltransferase inhibitors.

Outside the lab, Chihiro spends her time honing her musicianship. She is highly skilled solo pianist, winning numerous accolades and prizes in competition.

simon abehsera-cohen

charlotte paylor

renan vinicius de araujo

Renan is a visiting PhD student from the Centro de Química Medicinal da Unicamp (Center of Medicinal Chemistry, State University of Campinas), São Paulo, Brazil. He completed his Bachelors at the University of São Paulo, during which he also had the opportunity to complete internships at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Renan is currently using fragment based-drug discovery to develop inhibitors of KH-domain RNA binding proteins, in a project co-supervised by Jon Elkins.

Besides chemistry, he is a skilled practitioner of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

anne-sophie laumans-ziegler