FoldNetUK is headed by Professor André Cobb, and the three main themes within the network are each individually headed by Professor Steven Cobb for the biological applications of foldamers, Dr Sarah Pike for catalytic applications, and Professor Scott Cockroft for the materials applications.
They are all supported by the Network Coordinator, Eva Wyles.
Director & Coordinator
André Cobb
Director of FoldNetUK
André is a Professor of Organic Chemistry at King’s College London and the Director of FoldNetUK. He obtained his PhD at University College London with Professor Charles Marson studying asymmetric organozinc reaction, before undertaking postdoctoral work at Cambridge, first with Professor Florian Hollfelder, working with synzymes and then with Professor Steven V. Ley CBE FRS to work on organocatalysis. His first appointment was at the University of Reading from 2005 to 2016, during which he visited the labs of Professor Sam Gellman on a Royal Society Fellowship. He then returned to his alma mater within the Department of Chemistry at King’s, where one of his research areas has been on the development of heteromeric peptidic foldamers for catalysis.
Tel : +44 (0)207 848 1744
Email: andre.cobb@kcl.ac.uk
Eva Wyles
FoldNetUK Coordinator
Eva has over seven years of experience in operations and communications across a range of sectors. Originally from New Zealand, she holds a BA in English Literature and Media Studies, and an MA in Fiction. As Network Coordinator for FoldNetUK, she facilitates the development of the network through operations, events, communications, and funding administration.
Email: foldnetuk@kcl.ac.uk
Theme Leads
Steve Cobb
Theme One Lead: Biological Applications
Steve is a Professor of Chemical Biology at the University of Durham and the Network Lead for theme one, which is focused on the Biological Applications of foldamers. He conducted his PhD with Professor David O’Hagan at St. Andrew’s University and then undertook postdoctoral studies with Professor John Vederas at the University of Alberta. Steve has been at the University of Durham since 2007, where his research is focused on organic, peptoid and peptide chemistry to tackle interesting and challenging biological problems.
Email: s.l.cobb@durham.ac.uk
Sarah Pike
Theme Two Lead: Catalytic Applications
Sarah is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow (FLF) at the University of Birmingham. Her undergraduate degree at the University of Durham was followed by a PhD at the University of Edinburgh with Professor Paul Lusby. She then moved to the University of Manchester to work with Professors Jonathan Clayden and Simon Webb focusing on methods of stereocontrol in synthetic helical oligomers. After two further research positions, first within the group of Professor Robin Perutz FRS and then Professor Chris Hunter FRS at Cambridge, Sarah was appointed a lecturer at the University of Bradford, and then in 2020 to Birmingham, where her work focuses on supramolecular chemistry – particularly with respect to foldamers.
Email: s.j.pike@bham.ac.uk
Scott Cockroft
Theme Three Lead: Materials Applications
Scott was born and raised in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. He joined the School of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh in 2007 as lecturer and was promoted to Professor in 2019 as Personal Chair of Supramolecular Chemistry. Prior to this he conducted postdoctoral work with Prof. M. Reza Ghadiri at The Scripps Research Institute, California (2006-2007) and his PhD with Prof. Christopher A. Hunter FRS at the University of Sheffield (2002-2006). His group’s research spans organic, physical, and bioorganic chemistry where they combine molecules of synthetic and biological origin to examine the physical organic chemistry underpinning molecular interactions and the operation of molecular machines.
Email: scott.cockroft@ed.ac.uk
International Advisory board
Professor Sam Gellman
University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Professor Ivan Huc
Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Germany
Professor Bobby Arora
New York University, USA
Professor Jonathan Clayden FRS
University of Bristol, UK
Professor Andy Wilson
University of Birmingham, UK
Dr Beatrice Collins
University of Bristol, UK
Early Career Researcher Champion
Professor Vojislava Pophristic
Rowan University, USA
Dr Claire Heffernan
AstraZeneca, UK
Professor Galia Maayan
Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
Professor Claudia Tomasini
University of Bologna, Italy
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