Who We Are

The Centre for Anti-Infectives Research is part of the Division of Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery . This is a division within the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee.
CAIR brings together the Drug Discovery Unit (DDU) , the Mode of Action group and the Parasitology research groups. With the daily interactions of these groups, parasitology and drug discovery can work together in synergy. This empowers us to create potential new treatments for diseases which affect over 1 billion people across the world.

From April 2017-December 2025 the Centre was funded by Wellcome as the Wellcome Centre for Anti-infectives Research (WCAIR). During this time we

Expanded pipelines of pre-clinical and clinical development candidates for diseases of the developing world through the

Development of in vitro and in vivo assays/models to deliver pre-clinical candidates with a stronger evidence base and a match to target product profile
Developed new methods for hit discovery
Enhanced Centre infrastructure to improve effectiveness of drug discovery

Positively impact on global neglected tropical disease (NTD) drug discovery by

Establishing CAIR as the ‘go-to’ research institute for NTD drug discovery
Training the next generation of drug discovery researchers focusing on researchers in LMICs
Establishing CAIR as a leader in public engagement for NTD drug discovery

All researchers in CAIR are committed to building on the achievements of WCAIR and using their expertise and knowledge to continue to tackle unmet medical need within the field of anti-infective drug discovery.

People

The people in CAIR are key to our success. We are a multi-disciplinary team. We have experts in many science disciplines including: analytics, biochemistry, bioinformatics, cellular assays, compound management, data management, drug metabolism, genetics, genomics, computational chemistry, medicinal chemistry, synthetic chemistry, mass spectrometry, molecular biology, nuclear magnetic resonance, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, proteomics, protein production, X-ray crystallography, capacity building and public engagement.

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Partners

Successful drug discovery depends on groups of different experts sharing knowledge and skills. Finding new treatments for neglected diseases brings together partnerships of academic groups, pharma, biotech, charities, governments, non-governmental organisations and clinical centres. CAIR works closely with some of these partnerships including Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and the TB Drug Accelerator.

In 2015, The Drug Discovery Unit developed a potential new drug for malaria in collaboration with MMV. This is now in Phase 2 clinical trials by Merck KgaA, with the support of MMV.

More recently, within our strong collaboration with GSK’s Global Health R&D unit based in Tres Cantos working on leishmaniasis and Chagas disease funded by Wellcome, we have identified two new clinical candidates for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis one of which is progressing through Phase 1clinical trials led by DNDi.

How does it feel to discover a new potential treatment?

Watch the video to find out what motivates our scientists to get out of bed in the morning and keeps them going through the ups and downs of daily life in a research lab.

WCAIR 6 year report

Following the publication of the WCAIR 3 year report in 2020 we have now published the WCAIR 6 year report. The report covers the work of the Centre from its inception in April 2017 to March 2023. The report highlights key activities across our themes of Research, Training and Public Engagement. We encourage you to find out more by exploring the pages of this website or please do contact us at contactDDU@dundee.ac.uk with any questions.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the production of the report. A special thank you to Emma Quinn Design for the design and layout of the report.

Work and Life in Dundee

Please click on the button to find out more about the world class facilities and people you can work with if you join CAIR and the many advantages and pleasures of living in and around Dundee.

Read more Take a virtual tour of the labs

Vacancies

Joining the team at CAIR

All jobs are advertised through the University of Dundee jobs portal, https://www.dundee.ac.uk/work-for-us/jobs and applications must be made through this site. You can also look out for jobs advertised via the DDU LinkedIn account .

If you are interested in our training scheme please read the information in our Training section.

Information on PhD studentships can be found through the School of Life Sciences PhD site

The School of Life Sciences also runs a number of Masters courses.