World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!

D-Index & Metrics

Chemistry

D-Index
56
Citations
17612
World Ranking
11439
National Ranking
647

Overview

Paul D. Leeson is affiliated with Loughborough University in the United Kingdom and has contributed to several research topics within the field of Medicine. Their work primarily intersects with Computational Drug Discovery Methods and Microbial Natural Products and Biosynthesis, with additional focus on Pharmacogenetics and Drug Metabolism, Receptor Mechanisms and Signaling, Click Chemistry and Applications, Chemical Synthesis and Analysis, and Biochemical and Structural Characterization.

The scientist's frequent coauthors include Andrew R. Leach, Robert J. Young, Herbert Waldmann, Anna Lina Heinzke, and Axel Pahl. Their research has been published mainly in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, with other contributions appearing in JACS Au and Scientific Data, among additional venues such as the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology and Open Heart.

Leeson's recent papers comprise:

  • Target-Based Evaluation of "Drug-Like" Properties and Ligand Efficiencies, 2021, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
  • The Time and Place for Nature in Drug Discovery, 2022, JACS Au
  • Occurrence of "Natural Selection" in Successful Small Molecule Drug Discovery, 2024, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
  • Pseudonatural Products for Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, 2025, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
  • A compound-target pairs dataset: differences between drugs, clinical candidates and other bioactive compounds, 2024, Scientific Data

Leeson's scholarly output is anchored in several subfields including Computational Theory and Mathematics, Pharmacology, Molecular Biology, Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine, and Organic Chemistry. The integration of computational approaches with chemical and biological techniques characterizes the scope of their research efforts.

Best Publications

  • The influence of drug-like concepts on decision-making in medicinal chemistry

    Paul D. Leeson;Brian Springthorpe

  • An analysis of the attrition of drug candidates from four major pharmaceutical companies

    Michael J. Waring;John Arrowsmith;Andrew R. Leach;Paul D. Leeson

  • The role of ligand efficiency metrics in drug discovery

    Andrew L. Hopkins;György M. Keserü;Paul D. Leeson;David C. Rees

  • The Design of Leadlike Combinatorial Libraries.

    Simon J. Teague;Andrew M. Davis;Paul D. Leeson;Tudor Oprea

  • Is There a Difference between Leads and Drugs? A Historical Perspective

    Tudor I. Oprea;Andrew M. Davis;Simon J. Teague;Paul D. Leeson

  • 7-Chlorokynurenic acid is a selective antagonist at the glycine modulatory site of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor complex.

    J A Kemp;A C Foster;P D Leeson;T Priestley

  • A comparison of physiochemical property profiles of development and marketed oral drugs.

    Mark C. Wenlock;Rupert P. Austin;Patrick Barton;and Andrew M. Davis

  • The glycine site of the NMDA receptor — five years on

    John A. Kemp;Paul D. Leeson

  • The glycine site on the NMDA receptor: structure-activity relationships and therapeutic potential.

    Paul D. Leeson;Leslie L. Iversen

  • Time-related differences in the physical property profiles of oral drugs.

    Paul D Leeson;Andrew M Davis

  • Drug discovery: Chemical beauty contest

    Paul Leeson

  • 3-((4-(4-Chlorophenyl)piperazin-1-yl)-methyl)-1H-pyrrolo-2,3-b-pyridine: an antagonist with high affinity and selectivity for the human dopamine D4 receptor.

    J J Kulagowski;H B Broughton;N R Curtis;I M Mawer

  • From ATP to AZD6140: the discovery of an orally active reversible P2Y12 receptor antagonist for the prevention of thrombosis.

    Brian Springthorpe;Andrew Bailey;Patrick Barton;Timothy N. Birkinshaw

  • 4-Amido-2-carboxytetrahydroquinolines. Structure-activity relationships for antagonism at the glycine site of the NMDA receptor.

    P D Leeson;R W Carling;K W Moore;A M Moseley

  • Kynurenic acid derivatives. Structure-activity relationships for excitatory amino acid antagonism and identification of potent and selective antagonists at the glycine site on the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor.

    Paul D. Leeson;Raymond Baker;Robert W. Carling;Neil R. Curtis

  • [ 3 H]L-655,708, a Novel Ligand Selective for the Benzodiazepine Site of GABA A Receptors which Contain the α5 Subunit

    K. Quirk;P. Blurton;S. Fletcher;P. Leeson

  • The influence of the 'organizational factor' on compound quality in drug discovery

    Paul D. Leeson;Stephen A. St-Gallay

  • Biological Profile of L-745,870, a Selective Antagonist with High Affinity for the Dopamine D4 Receptor

    S. Patel;S. Freedman;K. L. Chapman;F. Emms

  • Molecular inflation, attrition and the rule of five.

    Unknown

  • Enantiomers of HA-966 (3-amino-1-hydroxypyrrolid-2-one) exhibit distinct central nervous system effects: (+)-HA-966 is a selective glycine/N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, but (-)-HA-966 is a potent gamma-butyrolactone-like sedative

    L Singh;A E Donald;A C Foster;P H Hutson

  • 3-phenyl-6-(2-pyridyl)methyloxy-1,2,4-triazolo[3,4-a]phthalazines and analogues: high-affinity gamma-aminobutyric acid-A benzodiazepine receptor ligands with alpha 2, alpha 3, and alpha 5-subtype binding selectivity over alpha 1.

    Robert W Carling;Kevin W Moore;Leslie J Street;Deborah Wild

Frequent Co-Authors

Raymond Baker
Raymond Baker MSD (United States)
Michael Rowley
Michael Rowley Pharmaron (United Kingdom)
Ian Collins
Ian Collins PharmEnable Therapeutics
Andrew M. Davis
Andrew M. Davis University of Chicago
Ruth M. McKernan
Ruth M. McKernan MSD (United States)
Richard G. Ball
Richard G. Ball MSD (United States)
Robert M. Owen
Robert M. Owen University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
Miles Congreve
Miles Congreve University of Hertfordshire
Jonathan B. Baell
Jonathan B. Baell Monash University
Richard Hargreaves
Richard Hargreaves Harvard Medical School

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