Discourse: How to get a molecule to obey you

Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu brings together the everyday chemistry in our lives with the latest nanotechnology delivering drugs in our bodies.

You may not consider much beyond the medicine you're prescribed, or purchase from the shelves, beyond the hope that it will make you feel better when you’re ill.

But beneath the foil popper, or inside that bottle is a highly researched chemical compound cocktail. Chemical compounds and their chemical bonds lie at the heart of not just medicines but of everything that we can see, touch or smell, and some things that are odourless and invisible to the naked eye too. In this Discourse, chemist Ijeoma Uchegbu illuminates how chemistry touches every aspect of our world.

Making medicines is an expensive and risky endeavour with, on average, over 5,000 compounds needing to be tested in some form or other before a useable drug compound emerges. A lot of compounds with poor activity fall by the wayside costing about a billion pounds per medicine. A further challenge lies in ensuring that after a medicine is developed patients follow their prescription.

Together we’ll explore how the industry has tackled these issues, from poor activity and side effects to ensuring that drug compounds reach the diseased part of the body whilst lessening the impact on healthy areas and clinical testing. With decisions being made at a nanoparticle level you’ll come away with a better understanding of this highly complex field and its impact on our everyday lives – from medicines to vaccines.

Copies of Ijeoma's book "Chain Reaction: How Chemistry Shapes Our Lives and Why We Should Care" will be available to purchase after the talk.