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Staff Profile

Dr Kate Harris

NUAcT Fellow: Drug Discovery

  • Email: kate.harris@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: 01912085706
  • Address: Chemistry
    School of Natural and Environmental Sciences
    Bedson Building
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
Background

Background

Kate Harris is a Newcastle University Academic Track Fellow in Drug Discovery, within the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences. Her research interests centre on drug discovery for fine control of the immune system, particularly in neurological diseases. This work is interdisciplinary, combining medicinal chemistry and in vitro cell biology, and also involves working within the Faculty of Medical Sciences. The goal of her fellowship is to provide the foundations for new drug discovery programmes in neurodegenerative disease which translate to bringing real benefit to patients.

Before taking up this post, Kate held Postdoctoral Research Associate posts at the University of Oxford, where she worked on drug discovery programmes in neurodegenerative disease and acute myeloid leukaemia, in addition to helping to establish new enzyme-based chemical synthesis methods for medicinal chemistry. She also held a Part-Time Stipendiary Lectureship in Organic Chemistry at Jesus College, University of Oxford.

Qualifications

PhD, Synthesis of Polyene Natural Products, Durham University, supervisor Professor Andy Whiting, 2017

MChem with Industrial Experience, Durham University and AstraZeneca R&D Oncology, 2013


Research

We try to enable drug discovery by understanding the biology of disease and how to drug it with small molecules. Our particular interests are in diseases of the immune system and the brain, such as neurodegenerative diseases, brain cancers and rare metabolic diseases. We're particularly interested in how the brain's immune cells, microglia, and neurons work together in the healthy, ageing and diseased brain.


Our research projects are aligned with this central goal:

Small molecules to inhibit interferon signalling in neuroinflammatory disease

This project aims to reduce the body's reaction to the inflammatory chemical interferon, with the hoping of treating neurological conditions with an inflammatory component. There are specific 'interferonopathies' which present with neurodegeneration which we hope to treat. In addition, increasing evidence is suggesting that interferon signalling plays a key role in neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). 

Collaborations: Dr Christopher Duncan (Newcastle University), Professor Sophie Hambleton (Newcastle University), Dr Catherine Adamson (University of St Andrews)


New ways to target complement with small molecules in the brain

This project aims to develop new disrupters of the complement pathway by targeting specific protein-protein interactions with small molecules that possess good properties for passing through the blood-brain barrier. By doing this, we hope to reduce excessive inflammation and neurodegeneration in the brain.

Collaborations: Dr Agnieszka Bronowska (Newcastle University), Professor Claire Harris (Newcastle University),


Understanding and harnessing the effect of different stimuli on microglial phenotype

This project aims to understand more about known inflammatory stimuli, linking the overall effect on neuroinflammation with an exact microglial phenotype that we can then target in future drug discovery programmes. We aim to generate robust chemical tools, and identify new molecular targets for neurodegenerative diseases and rare metabolic diseases, such as metachromic leukodystrophy (MLD).

Collaborations: Professor Ian Wood (University of Leeds), Dr David Richards (University of Exeter), Dr Dan Erskine (Newcastle University), Dr Nordine Helassa (University of Liverpool)


Probing epigenetics with small molecules

This project is developing new inhibitors of the KDM family of enzymes, which are implicated in a range of cancers and immunological activities.

Collaborations: Professor Akane Kawamura (Newcastle University), Professor Christopher Schofield (University of Oxford), Professor Sonia Rocha (University of Liverpool)


Interrogating the biology of the NLRP3 inflammasome

This project is using a combination of medicinal chemistry, computational chemistry and cell biology to understand more about how the NLRP3 inflammasome contributes to neurodegenerative disease.

Collaborations: Dr Agnieszka Bronowska (Newcastle University), Dr Viktor Korolchuk (Newcastle University), Dr Rebecca Coll (Queen's University Belfast), Professor Ehmke Pohl (Durham University)

Publications