Dr Joseph Hayes

Dr. Hayes has published widely in medicinal chemistry and has > 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals. His research has attracted funding from sources such as the European Union, Royal Society of Chemistry and Sydney Driscoll Neuroscience Foundation. With particular expertise in computer-aided drug design, these skills have been incorporated into "research methods" of the MSc in Cancer Biology & Therapy, MRes Neuroscience, and MSc Drug Discovery & Development degrees. Joe also lectures chemistry as part of the BSc (Hons) Biomedical Sciences, BSc (Hons) Physiology and Pharmacology, and MPharm (Hons) Pharmacy degrees. He is a research degree tutor (RDT) within the School of Pharmacy & Biomedical Science and sits on the university Research Degree Board (RDB).

Dr. Joseph Hayes is a Senior Lecturer in Computational Biology in the School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences. He graduated with a BSc (Hons) degree in chemistry from University College Dublin before completing a PhD in computational chemistry at the University of Dublin, Trinity College. Joe then gained academic and industrial postdoctoral experience first in the USA (Trinity University, Texas) and then in Europe, performing research at Anterio Consult & Research (Mannheim, Germany) and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. This was followed by five years at the National Hellenic Research Foundation (Athens, Greece) where the main research focus was investigating control of glycogenolysis for the potential treatment of type 2 diabetes, funded by the European Union.

Following a brief period as Associate Lecturer with the Open University, Joe joined the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in 2012, first as a Lecturer in Synthetic Biology within the Division of Chemistry, before moving to the School of Pharmacy & Biomedical Sciences as a Senior Lecturer in Computational Biology (2018). His main current research focus is in the area of computational drug design, with a particular interest in developing treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and the most common malignant brain tumours in adults (glioblastoma) and children (medulloblastoma), with PhD students working in these areas. He is part of the UCLan Research Centre for Brain and Behaviour, and the Brain Tumour North West (BTNW) consortium. He also publishes widely on type 2 diabetes and has additional research interests in molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPS), and computational modelling of de novo peptides designed to self-assemble into nanostructures with unique characteristics and potential applications as hydrogels for localised therapy against solid tumours (in collaboration with Dr. Mohamed Elsawy, De Montfort University, Leicester).

Joe has many other external (national and international) research collaborators that include Prof. Loranne Agius (Newcastle University), Profs. Laszlo Somsak and Eva Bokor (University of Debrecen, Hungary), Profs. Demetres Leonidas, Anna-Maria Psarra and Vicky Skamnaki (University of Thessaly, Greece), Prof. Ana Martinez (CSIC, Madrid), Prof. Atsushi Kato (University of Toyama, Japan) and Prof. George Archontis (University of Cyprus).

Dr. Hayes is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC) and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).