Professor Rob Britton, professor of organic chemistry at Simon Fraser University and natural drug development expert, is interviewed by Proactive Canada, upon his scientific advisor appointment to Albert Labs’ scientific advisory board. Read the full transcript below:

Stephen, Proactive: 

I’m joined by Robert Britton he’s a professor of chemistry at Simon Fraser University. Rob, good to speak with you.

Professor Rob Britton: 

Thank you for having me.

Stephen, Proactive: 

So Rob, before we discuss your work with Albert Labs, please, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your research?

Professor Rob Britton: 

Yeah, absolutely. So my background, I’m a chemist, an organic chemist and my background is in natural product chemistry.

So I spent time diving and collecting organisms from the ocean and then extracting the chemicals from them that they use to defend themselves, because oftentimes those are actually useful as treatments for various diseases like cancer. I then moved on and trained in organic synthesis, which is making those molecules that come from nature, but in a lab and trying to improve them.

And then eventually ended up in industry, working in process chemistry, so large scale production of drug molecules. Now I run my own research program at Simon Fraser, which is focused on natural products, but more from the synthesis side. So how do we make these things, how can we better make them, how can we change their structures a little bit to make them better drugs for humans, and inventing reactions that enable us to do.

Stephen, Proactive: 

Well, Rob, you had extensive experience and expertise in natural drug discovery and synthesis. How will your experience guide Albert Labs strategy to create new and novel therapeutics?

Professor Rob Britton: 

Yeah, it’s a good question. So Albert labs is obviously focused on a natural product coming from mycelium and fungi and my expertise in natural product isolation, characterization and purification will obviously be useful for Albert labs as they advance this exciting program.

Stephen, Proactive: 

Well, let’s leave it there for now. That’s professor Robert Britton. He’s from the Simon Fraser University. Thank you.

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Read the full press release here.

The original was posted via Proactive London here.