Award winning chemistry expertise
As a Contract Research Organisation, AF ChemPharm provides synthetic and medicinal chemistry services to biotech, pharma, universities, biomarkers and chemical industry. The Company specialises in the design, synthesis, and lead optimisation of small molecules supporting drug discovery globally. AF ChemPharm is committed to accelerating your research.
Whatever your core focus, AF ChemPharm is on hand to help you streamline your workflow. We are principally involved in early-stage drug discovery. We are reactive and versatile company, principally involved in early-stage drug discovery, but with clients from a diverse range of chemical industries.
Use AF ChemPharm capacity and capability
De-risk research while you continue your operations
Get high-quality service
Add skills, expertise and a dedicated team to your project
Pursue core programmes whilst we develop results
Extensions to your existing research
Highly qualified and experienced
State-of-the-art analytical facilities
Rapid turnaround
Versatile, flexible team
Skilled chemists specialising in design, synthesis and lead optimisation of small molecules.
State-of-the-art laboratory and chemical analysis facilities.
Well equipped specialist research equipment and analysis software.
Talented, pro-active team of research chemists, your out-sourced chemistry partners.
Custom Synthesis
Contract Research and Development
Consultancy
In-house Research
Directors and Scientific Advisory Board
Our team has an extensive background in chemistry, with up-to-date knowledge of modern and medicinal synthesis, and we’re coupled with a group of highly renowned academic advisors which enable AF ChemPharm to resolve your most complex and demanding chemistry problems and processes.
Dr Asad Fallah BSc, MPhil, PhD, Managing Director at AF ChemPharm
Dr Asad Fallah BSc, MPhil, PhD - Managing Director at AF ChemPharm
Asad obtained his PhD in synthetic organic chemistry and conformational study, followed by several years of postdoctoral research including four years at the University of Sheffield. He carried on as an independent consultant at the University, working with Professor Alan Spivey of Imperial College to provide custom and contract synthesis to the pharmaceutical industry. This led to the inception of AF ChemPharm in 1998.
Asad has led and managed a number of product development projects, some with large corporations, including a major US multinational (VFc) leading to a major international patent (WO2017223369A1, being co-inventor) and technology transfer for large scale manufacturing. He has also overseen technology transfer of some specific novel compounds to a Japanese company for the development of new generation of semiconductors. These projects were won through NineSigma’s worldwide bidding process.
He introduced medicinal chemistry into the company in 2010, initiating in-house early-stage drug discovery research in the area of hypertension, diabetes, and antibiotics through acquiring some highly prestigious funding awards, including Marie Curie (IAPP), KTP and SMART grants.
Asad has facilitated collaboration with industry and academia, including the University of Sheffield, on various projects involving a number of academics at the University. He is currently the industrial supervisor to a PhD student at the Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience (SITraN). This studentship is part sponsored by AF ChemPharm. In this collaboration, Asad initiated the potential design and use of small molecules to combat stroke.
Dr Ruhksana Quyoum, post-doctoral fellowship at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada for the development of Organometallic catalysts
Dr Ruhksana Quyoum
After completing her PhD, Ruhksana carried out a post-doctoral fellowship in the development of organometallic catalysts, at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. Her research led to the filing of a US patent (US 5,446,117). Ruhksana returned to the UK to take up a position as research fellow in mechanistic chemistry at the University of Sheffield with Professor Peter Maitlis.
She joined AF ChemPharm in 2000, actively participating in the management of the company, leading to her director/partnership of the company.
Ruhksana has been instrumental in securing research grants, as well as successfully bidding for research projects from industry. The company has held multi-million research funds from the private and public sector – including the prestigious Marie-Curie award.
Ruhksana has developed experience in the synthesis of boronic acids, which has led to a research project for a Japanese company to develop boron containing compounds for development of new generation of semiconductors. Ruhksana’s most recent venture has been involvement in the synthesis and design of a novel molecule for use in the textiles industry. Ruhksana has managed a variety of projects that have been awarded to AF ChemPharm and has 19 published papers and two patents.
Professor Alan Spivey
Alan Spivey is Professor of Synthetic Chemistry at Imperial College London.
Professor Alan Spivey, FRSC, FRSB, SFHEA
Alan Spivey is Professor of Synthetic Chemistry at Imperial College London. He began his research career studying for a DPhil with Professor Sir Jack Baldwin (Oxford University) Following post doctoral experience in the labs of the late Professor Wolfgang Oppolzer (Geneva University) and Professor Sir Alan Battersby (Cambridge University). He joined the university of Sheffield, Chemistry Department as a lecturer in 1996. He moved with his research group to Imperial College London in January 2003, where he has served as Director of Education, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Imperial College London, Vice-Dean (Education), Faculty of Natural Sciences and at present Assistant Provost (T&L).
The focus of his research is the development of useful new synthetic concepts and methods and the demonstration of their utility by application to the synthesis of biologically important target molecules or the solving of interesting biological/materials problems. Particular areas of current interest are the development of atropisomeric pyridine derivative as organocatalysts for acylation, sulfonylation, phosphorylation and silylation, the development of strategies for the disruption of therapeutically relevant protein-protein interactions in cancer and asthma by small molecules, and the development of new PET imaging agents for cancer diagnosis and monitoring. For details see the Spivey group web pages
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/spiveygroup
He has been Awarded:
Rector’s Medal for Excellence in Teaching, Imperial College London 2012
AstraZeneca Research Award in Organic Chemistry 2007
Synlett Journal Award 2002
Visiting Professor, University of Salamanca 1999
Wagstaff Prize + King Medal (top 1st in Chemistry & best practical work), University of Nottingham 1988
Professor Joe Harrity
Joe Harrity BSc (Hons.) in Chemistry from the University of Strathclyde, followed by a PhD from the same institution.
Professor Joe Harrity
Joe Harrity obtained his BSc (Hons.) in Chemistry from the University of Strathclyde in 1991, followed by a PhD from the same institution in 1994. He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Boston College, USA from 1994 to 1997, after which he became a Lecturer at the University of Sheffield.
Here he was promoted to Senior Lecturer, then Reader, and finally to Professor in 2009. His research interests are in the development of new synthetic chemistry methods for the synthesis of biologically active compounds, and his work has been recognised by the Pfizer Discovery (2004) and AstraZeneca Research Awards (2006), and the RSC Bader Award (2018).
Joe is a co-founder of Modulus Oncology, a university spin-out company that aims to develop a first-in-class series of anti-cancer therapeutics.
Professor Arshad Majid
Professor Arshad Majid’s professional mission is to develop new therapies for patients afflicted with neurological diseases, especially cerebrovascular diseases.
Professor Arshad Majid
Professor Arshad Majid’s professional mission is to develop new therapies for patients afflicted with neurological diseases, especially cerebrovascular diseases.
Professor Majid’s training and background is unique in that as well as being a leading translational neuroscientist, he is also an accomplished Vascular and Interventional Neurologist. He graduated in Medicine from the University of Glasgow, Scotland.
After obtaining Membership of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) he moved to the USA where he did further training in Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania and Fellowship training in Stroke Research at Washington University in St. Louis.
He did additional Fellowship training in Endovascular Surgical Neuroradiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Professor Majid has published extensively in high impact international peer-reviewed journals, and presented at national and international meetings.
After finishing his training, Professor Majid served as the founding Director of the Division of Cerebrovascular Diseases at Michigan State University and was the founding Medical Director of the William and Claire Dart Stroke Center at Sparrow Health System.
Professor Majid is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and also serves as their Regional Advisor.
He joined the University of Sheffield and Royal Hallamshire Hospital in August 2013 as Professor of Cerebrovascular Neurology and Consultant Neurologist.
Professor Majid also served as a Governor of Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust.
Professor Beining Chen
Beining Chen is a Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Sheffield.
Professor Beining Chen
Beining Chen is a Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Sheffield. Beining began her career by obtaining her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Glasgow in 1991. Subsequently, she became a Research Fellow at the Dyson-Perrins Laboratory in Oxford (1993-1995), a Research Fellow and then Lecturer at the University of Cranfield (1996-2002). In 2003 she moved to the University of Sheffield as a lecturer, where she became Professor in 2014.
Her expertise lies in the area of drug discovery and chemical biology using techniques including computer-aided drug design, combinatorial chemistry, and in vitro assays. Her research interests include the roles of prion protein in neurodegenerative diseases and cancer; antimicrobials and stem cell biology. Professor Chen is the course director for BSc/MChem with Biological and Medicinal Chemistry, and MSc in Drug Discovery Science.
Accreditations and associations
