Skip to content
University of Bradford logo

Klaus Pors

Professor of Chemical Biology

Area
School of Pharmacy & Medical Sciences
Faculty of Life Sciences
E-mail
K.Pors1@bradford.ac.uk
Phone
+441274236482
Klaus Pors
55 publications

Biography

Klaus Pors graduated with a BEng in Chemical Engineering from the University of Southern Denmark (Odense, Denmark) in 1998 and completed his studies in Medicinal Chemistry at the UCL School of Pharmacy in 2002. Both his PhD and Postdoc (UCL School of Pharmacy 2002-05) was focused on the discovery of anticancer agents and hypoxia-activated prodrugs to treat solid tumours. In 2005 he relocated to Bradford to take up a Yorkshire Cancer Research-funded lecturer and team leader position at the Institute of Cancer Therapeutics with focus on the discovery of tumour-selective therapies. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2013 and to Professor of Chemical Biology in 2021.

Research

Research in the Pors group is focussed on research at the interface between chemistry and biology. Traditional approaches to drug discovery such as target oriented synthesis and medicinal chemistry are used to develop focussed libraries of small molecules that are entirely new chemical entities or re-engineered versions of natural products. In addition, his group uses diversity-oriented synthesis to generate collections of small molecules of structural diverse architecture, which can be used to probe new chemical space or known biological pathways that are not well understood. In the context of cancer, novel therapeutics are designed to (i) exploit enzymatic and/or physiological conditions found unique to the tumour microenvironment or (ii) circumvent or exploit resistance mechanisms present in malignant tissue. Specific projects include:

1) Development of tumour-selective prodrugs using bio-oxidative or bioreductive mode of activation.

2) Development of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) inhibitors and prodrug derivatives.

3) Development of aldo-keto reductase 1C3 (AKR1C3) inhibitors and prodrug derivatives.

4) Development of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs)

In addition, our group is also interested in developing molecular fluorescent probes that can be used to stain fixed or live cells with wide applications in routine and research laboratories utilising flow cytometry and fluorescence imaging methods.

Current research team include: Dr Sneha Swaroop (research fellow), postgraduate students Elisabet Battle, Zoë Jukes, Enric Arasanz Picher,  Abdullahi Magaji Dauda, Enrica Denasio and Sam MacKenzie (intern student from York). 

Our research us supported by Breast Cancer Now, Secondary1st, The Schlumberger Foundation, Kidscan, ICT Doctoral Training Centre and University of Bradford (International Development Fund).

Teaching

Cancer Research
Chemical Biology
Drug Discovery
Drug Metabolism
Enzymology
Fluorophores for imaging and tracking
Hypoxia
Medicinal Chemistry
Stem Cells

Professional activities

  • UCL - PhD
  • University of Southern Denmark - BEng

  • Past Executive Member: British Association for Cancer Research (BACR), past executive committee member (2008-11)
  • Guest Lecturer: Guest Lecturer (2013-2017), in "Cancer Drug Discovery", The Department of Science and Drug Technologies, University of Torino (Italy)
  • Elected Member: Elected member of the EPSRC peer review college (2016-)
  • External Examiner: External Examiner, MSc in Drug Design and Discovery, University of Salford (2015-19)
  • Elected Member: Elected member of the British Council, Newton Schemes (2016-)
  • Reviewer (Grants): Ad-hoc grant reviewer for research councils and charities (MRC, EPSRC, AICR, Breast Cancer Now, Prostate Cancer UK)
  • External Examiner: External Examiner, BSc Biopharmaceutical Science, University of Sunderland (2015-)
  • Guest Lecturer: Guest Lecturer (2013-), "Chemistry in Drug Discovery", Ecole Superieure de Chimie Organique et Minerale (ESCOM, Paris, France)
  • Editor: Editor, CICR Editorial Board (AACR, 2012-2016); Past Editor

Publications