Student testimonial - Lyubomir Kotopanov

As a medicinal chemist my primary goal is to increase people's quality of life by developing new medications.

With the constant evolution of technology, I believe we should embrace the use of advanced computers and automated platforms to discover and develop innovative treatments, building on established bench-based manual approaches.

UCL also embraces this as a foundation for the MSc Drug Design course.

When I applied, this was the only programme specifically focused on teaching students how to use various computer software as well as programming to design state-of-the-art medicines to combat rare and challenging diseases.

That guided my decision to study at UCL and convinced me that this programme would contribute greatly towards my future development as a computer-aided drug designer.

Equally, the university has proven to be one of the world's leading institutions in terms of research impact on a global scale. This is enabled by highly qualified staff who are devoted to research but also willing to pass on their knowledge to students who are motivated to excel.

During my research project at UCL, I learned how to develop machine learning algorithms that can be used to speed up the drug discovery process immensely.

This new skill allowed me to secure a fully funded PhD position where I will build on my computer-aided drug discovery experience using robotics and artificial intelligence to develop medicines more rapidly and efficiently.

I would recommend the MSc Drug Design to anyone who is interested in exploring state-of-the-art methods for drug discovery.

Lyubomir Kotopanov, MSc Drug Design, 2023