Michael has >20 year experience as a medicinal chemist in drug discovery, working for the pharmaceutical industry (Pfizer) and drug discovery groups within academia (University of Sussex, Cardiff University). Michael has extensive experience working across a range of target classes and disease areas encompassing anti-infectives, allergy & respiratory and CNS.Michael is currently a Senior Research Scientist at Cardiff University where he setup the research operations of the Medicines Discovery Institute, encompassing research laboratories (chemistry and biology). Michael's current research interests are in CNS ion channels and in particular modulators of the GABAA receptors (Anxiety disorders, Neuropathic pain, Post-Partum depression, Psychosis, Epilepsy) where he is leading a portfolio of projects from early discovery to late stage pre-clinical studies.Before joining the Medicines Discovery Institutes, Michael setup the research laboratories within the Sussex Drug Discovery group where he invented Sisunatovir (RV521), an inhibitor of respiratory syncytial virusAs a project leader for Pfizer, Michael led multiple global chemistry teams, both in-house and externally to enable delivery of molecules from hit-to-lead through to candidate molecule scale up to support Phase 1 studies and has been involved in the discovery of Maraviroc and multiple Phase I and II clinical candidates