Question: On your profile it is written that you make compounds, test and improve them, does this mean that you don't only work with antibiotics but any medical compund? How varied are the compunds you tested (what other types of substances, ex: painkillers, antifungals, etc.?)? Was there a specific one that you found particularly interesting?

Lindsay Robinson answered on 15 Jun 2016:

Hi VictorDobos. I have to confess that I have never worked on antiobiotics which isn’t that unusual for a synthetic chemist.

I have worked on lots of different drugs – painkillers for migraine, antifungals, cardiovascular drugs (specifically to treat when your arteries fur up), period pain, cancer, sleeping sickness, atrial fibrillation (where your heart rhythm isn’t right, basically). I always find the most interesting projects are when the structures of the drugs you have to make are difficult. It’s what I love to do because I like the challenge.

The most interesting drug I worked on where the disease was interesting was the cardiovascular drug for atherosclerosis because it had really complex effects within the body.

The difference between chemistry is that you don’t really need to specialise on a specific disease area for your work so often you get the variety of working on lots of different things in your career.