Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Beatriz Baragaña is a Principal Investigator and the apicomplexan portfolio leader in the Drug Discovery Unit (DDU).
Beatriz graduated with a BSc in Chemistry from University of Oviedo (Spain) and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the same university under the supervision of Prof. Barluenga. She went on to join Prof. A. P. Davies lab at Trinity College (Dublin) followed by an industrial postdoctoral position as Medicinal Chemist at Bayer AG (Wuppertal, Germany). She moved to Scotland in 2001 and joined Avecia (now Piramal Pharma) where she became a team leader working in antibody drug conjugates for the treatment of cancer. In 2007 she joined Prof. Ian H. Gilbert group at the University of Dundee.
Beatriz leads a portfolio of projects for malaria, cryptosporidiosis and schistosomiasis drug discovery. The projects in her portfolio are at various stages along the drug discovery pathway and involve an extended network of international collaborators both in industry and academia. Beatriz leads teams of biologists, chemist, computational chemist, crystallographers, and pharmacologists to deliver leads and pre-clinical candidates with novel mode of actions for these infectious diseases. The most advanced compound discovered by her team, Cabamiquine (DDD489) has demonstrated single dose cures of malaria infections in a Phase I clinical study and is now in Phase 2 trials in Africa in combination with pyronaridine. The DDU malaria team has been awarded the Medicines for Malaria Venture Project of the Year Award twice (2014 and 2018).
Research interests
- Target based structure guided drug discovery for infectious diseases with a focus on malaria, tuberculosis, and cryptosporidiosis.
- Develop selective chemical probes to improve the understating of the biology of Plasmodium and Cryptosporidium parasites and unveil new molecular targets for drug discovery.
- Develop new pre-clinical candidates for malaria and cryptosporidiosis.
- Develop the drug discovery pathway for schistosomiasis, including target product profiles, a drug discovery cascade, and better understanding of the PK/PD.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
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SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being -
SDG 4 Quality Education
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or
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Structure-guided drug discovery coalition
Baragana, B. (Investigator), Bodkin, M. (Investigator), Gilbert, I. (Investigator) & Postis, V. (Investigator)
1/07/24 → 30/06/27
Project: Research
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Fighting Malaria: PfGNA1 as a Novel Malaria Drug Target
Baragana, B. (Investigator), Gilbert, I. (Investigator) & Postis, V. (Investigator)
Project: Research
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Accelerating pre-clinical drug discovery for schistosomiasis
Baragana, B. (Investigator), Bodkin, M. (Investigator), Gilbert, I. (Investigator), Read, K. (Investigator) & Wyllie, S. (Investigator)
Project: Research
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Fragment And Structure Based Hit Generation Platform For New Malaria Targets - Joint with Medicines for Malaria Venture and Universities of Ocford and Tokyo (CRT record 41007)
Baragana, B. (Investigator), Bodkin, M. (Investigator) & Gilbert, I. (Investigator)
1/04/24 → 31/03/26
Project: Research
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Target Discovery for Antimalarials (Joint with University of California San Diego)
Baragana, B. (Investigator) & Gilbert, I. (Investigator)
University of California at San Diego
1/01/21 → 1/01/22
Project: Research
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A pathogen-hopping approach for the identification of compounds with multistage anti-schistosomal activity
Taylor, M. R., Mendonca Matos Day, P., Lees, K., Caldwell, N., Forde-Thomas, J. E., Hulme, B. J., Evans, M., Read, K., Gilbert, I., Hoffmann, K. F. (Lead / Corresponding author) & Baragana, B. (Lead / Corresponding author), 27 Aug 2026, (E-pub ahead of print) In: ACS Infectious Diseases. 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Mechanistic Insights into Dual-Active Liver and Blood-Stage Antiplasmodials
Rawat, M., Boonyalai, T., Smidt, C., Luth, M. R., Chen, D., Plater, A., Post, J., Lin, D., McMillan, J., Eadsforth, T., Moliner Cubel, S., Billker, O., Rayner, J. C., Gamo, F.-J., Baragana, B., Winzeler, E. A. & Lee, M. C. S., 14 Jan 2026, In: MBio. 17, 1, p. e0242325 20 p., e02423-25.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile13 Downloads (Pure) -
Structure guided optimization of novel inhibitors of Plasmodium lysyl-tRNA synthetase with multistage activity against malaria parasites
Forte, B., Bellany, F., Campbell, P. S., Chemi, G., Dawson, A., Anderson, M., Aniweh, Y., Burkhard, A. Y., Aguiar, A. C. C., Churchyard, A., Cooper, C. A., Ferreira, A. D. S., Famodimu, M. T., Fang, F. G., Hu, X., Huijs, T., Baud, D., Jansen, C., Jiménez-Díaz, M. B. & Bonnert, R. & 49 others, , 11 Jun 2026, In: Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 69, 11, p. 13820-13855 36 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile42 Downloads (Pure) -
The second Cryptosporidium meeting: Edinburgh's parasite deep dive
Korpe, P. (Lead / Corresponding author), Chilufya, R. (Lead / Corresponding author), Maradana, M. R. (Lead / Corresponding author), Greigert, V. (Lead / Corresponding author), Pallett, M. (Lead / Corresponding author), Nötzel, C. (Lead / Corresponding author), Walzer, K. A. (Lead / Corresponding author), Balestra, A. (Lead / Corresponding author), Key, M. (Lead / Corresponding author), Shaw, S. (Lead / Corresponding author), Baragaña, B. (Lead / Corresponding author) & Meyers, M. J. (Lead / Corresponding author), Aug 2026, In: Trends in Parasitology. 42, 8, p. 674-679 6 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review
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Use of a cytochrome P450 humanized mouse model to refine schistosomiasis drug discovery
Davey, S. D., Forde-Thomas, J. E., Hulme, B. J., Lees, K., Costain, A. H., Evans, M., Rinaldi, G., Frame, L., Stojanovski, L., Simeons, F. R. C., Tavendale, A., MacLeod, A. K., Pichon, R., Lee, Y. H., Polak, O., Chalmers, I. W., Dankwa, B., Odhiambo, B. K., Guimaraes, V. H. & Hegarty, M. & 8 others, , 14 Apr 2026, In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 123, 15, 12 p., e2600197123.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile17 Downloads (Pure)
Datasets
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BindingDB Entry 50010210: Trisubstituted Pyrimidines as Efficacious and Fast-Acting Antimalarials.
BindingDB, Norcross, N. (Creator), Baragana, B. (Creator), Wilson, C. (Creator), Hallyburton, I. (Creator), Osuna-Cabello, M. (Creator), Norval, S. (Creator), Riley, J. (Creator), Stojanovski, L. (Creator), Simeons, F. (Creator), Porzelle, A. (Creator), Grimaldi, R. (Creator), Wittlin, S. (Creator), Duffy, S. (Creator), Avery, V. M. (Creator), Meister, S. (Creator), Sanz, L. M. (Creator), Jimenez-Diaz, B. (Creator), Angulo-Barturen, I. (Creator), Ferrer-Bazaga, S. (Creator), Santos Martinez, M. (Creator), Gamo, F.-J. (Creator), Frearson, J. (Creator), Gray, D. (Creator), Fairlamb, A. (Creator), Winzeler, E. A. (Creator), Waterson, D. (Creator), Campbell, S. F. (Creator), Willis, P. (Creator), Read, K. (Creator) & Gilbert, I. (Creator), BindingDB, 28 Feb 2021
DOI: 10.7270/q2h41vzx
Dataset
Activities
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Antimalarial drug discovery: the single dose cure challenge
Baragana, B. (Speaker)
18 Sept 2024Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture
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Optimisation of lysyl-tRNA synthetase inhibitors for malaria: The single dose cure challenge
Baragana, B. (Speaker)
13 Jun 2024Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Development of new treatments for malaria and cryptosporidiosis
Baragana, B. (Speaker)
13 Sept 2024Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Bonding
Floyd, A. (Host), Fong, E. (Chair), Mackintosh, A. (Host), Fairlamb, A. (Chair), Aitken, J. (Member of programme committee), Farrell, S. (Participant), Thomas, M. (Participant), Tarver, G. (Participant), Postis, V. (Participant), McGinnis, C. (Participant), Read, K. (Participant), Seizova, S. (Participant), Cleghorn, L. (Participant), Baragana, B. (Participant), Pearson, L.-A. (Participant), Bellany, F. (Participant), Pinto, E. (Participant), Simeons, F. (Participant), Godoy Magalhaes, L. (Participant), Bayliss, T. (Participant), Akwensi, J. (Participant), De Sousa Paradela, L. (Participant), Wyllie, S. (Participant), Anderson, G. (Participant), Wu, S. (Participant) & Urbanowska, A. (Participant)
16 Feb 2023 → 8 Apr 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Festival/Exhibition
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Drugging acetyl-CoA synthetase
Baragana, B. (Speaker)
13 Jan 2023Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk