Medicinal Chemistry podcasts

The Chemical Breakdown team looks ahead to the 2026 Nobel prize in chemistry. Host Mariana Kneppers discusses possible research areas and laureates with Jamie Durrani and Neil Withers, with additional predictions from the Chemistry World team. Topics include skeletal editing, GLP-1 research and analytical techniques, alongside how previous prizes shape expectations. This is a predictions episode published before the prize announcement, rather than a report of confirmed winners.

Hosted by Mariana Kneppers

Rafael Rosengarten and BioPharmaTrend co-founder Andrii Buvailo discuss how to assess progress in AI-assisted drug discovery. They trace the move from individual computational tasks to connected research workflows and question whether counting AI-associated drug candidates captures the technology’s value. Topics include research productivity, trial design, biomarkers, human expertise and the use of patient-derived data, organoids and other representative biological systems to improve translation. The conversation also considers why AI has become polarising and how specialised models may fit into pharmaceutical research.

Mariana Kneppers, Neil Withers and Phillip Broadwith discuss molecular glues and efforts to target cancer-related proteins previously considered difficult to drug. They also explore how analysis of fibres and dyes helps researchers investigate and conserve the Bayeux Tapestry.

Hosted by Mariana Kneppers

Carolyn Bertozzi explains why sugars on cell surfaces matter for communication between cells and how new chemical methods make these complex molecules accessible to research. The discussion connects this work to neuroscience, biological aging and drug development.

Hosted by Nicholas Weiler

Jonathan Long discusses the expanding scientific study of peptides, from improved methods for discovering molecules in the body to the success of GLP-1 medicines. The conversation distinguishes research progress from untested wellness claims and examines the search for compounds that reproduce aspects of exercise biology.

Hosted by Nicholas Weiler

Jacob Hooker of Sensorium Therapeutics speaks with Rafael Rosengarten about investigating plant-derived compounds for psychiatric and neurological drug development. They discuss ethnobotanical records, knowledge graphs and AI as tools for generating hypotheses, alongside the medicinal chemistry and clinical testing needed to turn potential leads into medicines.

Hosted by Rafael Rosengarten

This episode examines vanadium compounds as potential medicines and the obstacles separating promising studies from practical treatments. It then turns to the environmental footprint of research laboratories, considering changes in water use, plastics, energy, solvents and other materials. The discussion connects medicinal chemistry with practical questions about making laboratory work more sustainable.

Hosted by Mariana Kneppers

Charlene Lancaster speaks with Cesar de la Fuente about using artificial intelligence to discover novel antibiotics from organisms and genetic sources spanning spiders, archaea, woolly mammoths, and humans.

Donna Blackmond discusses why biological molecules favour a single handedness and how that asymmetry might have emerged. The homochirality discussion begins at 6:18. The episode also covers antiparasitic medicines recognised by the 2015 medicine Nobel prize, blood-based estimates of time since death, Matt Gunther’s interview with chemistry laureate Tomas Lindahl about DNA repair, polymer additives designed to reduce aviation-fuel fires, and carbon quantum dots produced from urine.