Dean Rivers

Dean Rivers has over 15 years of experience in medicinal chemistry. From 2003 to 2015, they worked at GSK in the Neural Pathways DPU and Neurology & GI CEDD departments as a Medicinal Chemist. During this time, they were the lead medicinal chemist for two lead identification efforts and a key player in several lead optimization projects. Dean was also the inventor for five patent filings and the lead user for automated purification equipment. From 2015 to 2018, they worked at Cantab Anti-infectives as a Senior Medicinal Chemist, where they were the lead laboratory medicinal chemist for a successful project acquired by a major US biotech, delivered the first synthesis of a candidate compound and managed subsequent scale-up. Dean also validated an alternative synthetic route to lead compounds, facilitating further analogues. Since 2018, they have been the Head of Medicinal Chemistry Laboratory at Autifony Therapeutics, where they lead a team of medicinal chemists targeting new drugs to treat serious CNS disorders, manages the chemistry laboratory and coordinates interactions with CROs and academic collaborations.

Dean Rivers attended Durham University from 1999 to 2003, where they obtained an MChem in Chemistry.