Rob Young joined Wellcome in February 1990, following BA/DPhil degrees at University of Oxford and a Post Doc at Ben May Institute, University of Chicago. His subsequent career navigated changes, mergers and acquisitions and positions of increasing responsibility to become a Scientific Leader and elected GSK Fellow. His career charted significant contributions to six development candidates in antivirals (HIV/HBV/Herpes), iNOS and Factor Xa, before a move to early-stage discovery (2006) fulfilling leadership roles numerous H2L programs, using diverse technologies including HTS, fragments, focussed & designed screens, and DNA-encoded libraries. Expertise in Physical Properties and the Property Forecast Index were developed in a productive partnership with Alan Hill spanning many years. Appointed/co-opted to numerous GSK cross-disciplinary initiatives and communities including in silico predictive modelling, DMPK, Physical Chemsitry, Stability and Safety. An author/inventor on more than 100 publications/ patent applications, he continues with writing endeavours with thought provoking perspectives. Rob is an honorary visiting Professor at The University of St Andrews.
Rob took early retirement from GSK in July 2019 and set up Blue Burgundy to pursue medicinal chemistry consulting, training, and educational interests, with an active portfolio of clients encompassing academic institutions and companies of all sizes in many countries.
