About

Prof. Richard Amewu is a distinguished synthetic organic chemist and drug discovery pioneer with over 25 years of experience spanning medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, and translational drug development for malaria, tuberculosis, Buruli ulcer, leishmaniasis, and neglected tropical diseases. He is the founder and leader of the Drug Innovation Group at the University of Ghana — the leading academic medicinal chemistry laboratory in West Africa. Author of 60+ peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals including Nature Communications, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, PNAS, and Angewandte Chemie, with 4 international patents and 3 drug candidate selections. He is the principal investigator on landmark projects funded by the Gates Foundation, WHO, LifeArc, MMV (Malaria Libre), and the EU's Horizon programme (RAFIKI)

Prof Richard Amewu has an outstanding track record in interdisciplinary chemical biology research which is well-embedded in the drug discovery research community. His research experience, including candidate selection of three molecules for antimalarial and anti-tuberculosis, is well known. His research work resulted in several high-profile publications in high impact peer-reviewed journals including nature communication and four patents. For example, as part of an internationally recognized Drug Discovery group based at University of Liverpool, he undertook several medicinal chemistry projects focusing on drug discovery. One of the flagship projects was on medicinal chemistry of 1,2,4,5-Tetraoxanes where they explored the peroxidic moiety in Artemisinin by incorporating two peroxide warheads into the compounds. Most of the compounds gave superior antimalarial activities with improved PK profiles than artemisinin. Two frontrunner compounds have been candidate selected for evaluation as potential antimalarial drug. Furthermore, his research in the diagnosis of Buruli Ulcer using the fluorescent thin layer chromatography is well known in the Buruli Ulcer community.

Education

Ph.D.: Medicinal Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom

MSc.: Chemical Process and Research Development, Department of Chemistry, University of Liverpool. United Kingdom.

B.Sc.: Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana 

Research Interest

Prof Richard Amewu’s research covers drug-design, chemical biology, and medicinal chemistry of antimalarial, antimycobacterial, and anticancer drugs as well as treatment for neglected diseases. His research also focuses on exploring the key pharmacophore in natural products and designing semi synthetic or purely synthetic as well as manipulation of undruglike chemical entities with therapeutic properties into druglike compounds.

Publications

2026, Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine, 2026, 16(9), a041859

2026, Frontiers in Drug Discovery, 2026, 6:1884834.

2026, Scientific African, 2026, 32: e03309

2026, Current Drug Therapy, 2026, 21, 1-42

2026, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry,2026, 69(4), 3984–3998

2025, Frontiers in Chemistry, 2025, 13:1527387

2025, Chemosensors, 2025, 13(7), 244

2025, ACS Infectious Diseases, 2025, 11 (9): 2593–2606

2025, In Silico Research in Biomedicine, 2025, 1:100137

2025, Journal of Parasitic Diseases, 2025, 49(4)

2025, Scientific Reports, 2025, 15:31914

2025, Parasitologia, 2025, 5(3), 49

2024 Toxins, 2024, 16(12):528

2024 Nature Review Earth & Environment, 2024, 5:837–838

2023 Informatics in Medicine, 2023, 37 (2020), 101162.

2023 BMC Infectious Diseases, 2023, 23 (1), 495.

2023 Pharmaceuticals, 2023,16 (3), 330.

2022 PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2022,16(9): e0010645.

2022 Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol. 2022,12: 859981.

2022 Biology, 2022, 11, 1109.

2022 PLoS ONE 2022, 17(8): e0270235.

2022 Clin Med Rev Case Rep, 2022, 2, 9, 379.

2022 Results in Chemistry, 2022, 100287. 

2021 Molecules, 2021, 26, 7134.

2021 Methods in Molecular Biology, 2021, vol 2387.

2021 Journal of Parasitic Diseases, 2021, 45 (9)1-20.

2021 Natural Products and Bioprospecting,2021, 11(5):489.

2020 ACS Infect Dis. 2020, 6, 3-13.

2020 PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2020, 14(12) e0008919.

2020 Results in Chemistry, 2020, 2, 100052.

2018 Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry 2018, 26, 11, 2996.

2017 Nature Communication, 2017, 8, 15159.

2017 Molecules, 2017, 22, pp 532-543.

2017 Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2017, 60, 9, 3703. 

2016 Tetrahedron, 2016, 72, 40, 6118-6126.                                                                                                             2014 Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 2014, 69, 1005. 

2014 Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 2014, 5, 108.                                 

2013 ChemMedChem, 2013, 8, 1528.

2012 Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2012, 55, 1844.  

2012, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2012, 55, 3144

2012, PNAS, 2012, 109, 8298-8303 

2011, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2011, 54, 6443 

2011, MedChemComm, 2011,2, 661

2011, ChemMedChem,2011, 6, 1357

2010 Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, 2010, 2068.

2010 Angewandte Chemie, International Edition, 2010, 49, 5693

2010 Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2010, 53, 8202

2008 Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2008, 51, 2170 

2008, Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 2008, 18, 1720.

2007, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 6278

2006, Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry, 2006, 6124

2006 Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, 2006, 4, 4431.  

OCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4676-436X

RESEARCHGATE: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Richard-Amewu-2/publications

GOOGLE SCHOLAR: https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=new_articles&hl=en&imq=Richard+Amewu#

LINKEDIN: http://www.linkedin.com/in/professor-richard-amewu-02909535

GROUP WEBSITE: dig.ug.edu.gh