ProfessorSunil Shaunak
Emeritus Professor in Infectious Diseases
Department of Infectious Disease - Faculty of Medicine
- Emeritus Professor in Infectious DiseasesDepartment of Infectious Disease - Faculty of Medicine
- Infectious Diseases, Commonwealth Building, Imperial Campus, Hammersmith Hospital, London, United Kingdom
BIO
Prof Shaunak has created cost-effective new medicines for Hepatitis C, Shigella, Leishmaniasis & HIV.
He was also a co-Founder of the Imperial spinout PolyTherics in 2001 which was renamed Abzena when listed on London's AIM market in 2014. Abzena has driven the development of better biopharmaceutical products in the UK & US. Its ThioBridge technology (ie, protein disulfide bridge based conjugation of drugs) has enabled the development of potent antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) as new medicines.
He has championed the international public debate about the need for equitable global access to affordable medicines. These can be modelled on expensive drugs, but structurally modified to make them both patentable (he has 23 granted patents) and cost-effective as new medicines. His work shows how university based innovation can be turned into new, useful and affordable global healthcare products.
Combining university drug discovery with industry drug development has enabled his blue sky research to be turned into cost-effective new medicines. This public-private approach is now widely accepted as having successfully enabled better access to affordable products that have improved people’s health worldwide.
Prof Shaunak was awarded an OBE for services to Infectious Diseases and Drug Discovery in 2023.
He was also a co-Founder of the Imperial spinout PolyTherics in 2001 which was renamed Abzena when listed on London's AIM market in 2014. Abzena has driven the development of better biopharmaceutical products in the UK & US. Its ThioBridge technology (ie, protein disulfide bridge based conjugation of drugs) has enabled the development of potent antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) as new medicines.
He has championed the international public debate about the need for equitable global access to affordable medicines. These can be modelled on expensive drugs, but structurally modified to make them both patentable (he has 23 granted patents) and cost-effective as new medicines. His work shows how university based innovation can be turned into new, useful and affordable global healthcare products.
Combining university drug discovery with industry drug development has enabled his blue sky research to be turned into cost-effective new medicines. This public-private approach is now widely accepted as having successfully enabled better access to affordable products that have improved people’s health worldwide.
Prof Shaunak was awarded an OBE for services to Infectious Diseases and Drug Discovery in 2023.
FACULTY
- Faculty of Medicine
POSITION NAME
- Emeritus Professor in Infectious Diseases