Stephen Neidle on cancer therapy and G-quadruplex inhibitors. Interview by Joanna De Souza

Stephen Neidle was educated at Imperial College, London, where he graduated in chemistry and then proceeded to do a PhD in crystallography. After a period as an ICI Fellow, he joined the Biophysics Department at King's College, which ignited his interest in nucleic acid structural studies. He was appointed as one of the first Cancer Research Campaign Career Development Awardees, becoming a Life Fellow on moving to the Institute of Cancer Research. He was appointed to the Chair of Biophysics at the Institute of Cancer Research in 1990, and moved to the new Chair of Chemical Biology at the School of Pharmacy in the University of London in 2002, where he also directs the Cancer Research UK Biomolecular Structure Group. He is currently Chairman of the Chemical Biology Forum of the Royal Society of Chemistry, which is involved in developing the interface between chemistry and the life sciences. He will shortly assume the Directorship of the newly-established Centre for Cancer Medicines at the School. Stephen Neidle has received several awards for his work on drug-nucleic acid recognition and drug design, including the 2000 prize of the Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Sector of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and its 2002 Interdisciplinary Award. He was the 2004 Paul Ehrlich Lecturer of the French Societé de Chimie Therapeutique, and was recently awarded the 2004 Aventis Prize in Medicinal Chemistry.