Dr James Coverdale MChem PhD CChem MRSC

• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), Advance HE, 2023
• Chartered Chemist (CChem), Royal Society of Chemistry, 2021
• Doctor of Chemistry, University of Warwick, 2017
• MChem in Chemistry, University of Warwick, 2014

James contributes to teaching across the MPharm programme, with a particular focus on medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry. His teaching connects fundamental chemistry principles with drug discovery, development and the use of medicines, drawing on his experience in industry and research to provide a practical, research-informed perspective.

He is Senior Academic Tutor for the School of Pharmacy, providing academic and pastoral support to students throughout their studies. James is also Module Lead for Year 4 Research Projects and Deputy Module Lead for MSc Clinical Pharmacy (International) Research Projects where he contributes to curriculum delivery, assessment and ongoing enhancement of taught programmes in Pharmacy.

Dr Coverdale’s research sits at the interface of chemistry, biology and medicine. His group investigates how metals and trace elements influence health and disease, while developing analytical tools to understand their behaviour in complex biological systems. This work supports the discovery and evaluation of new metal-based medicines.

Supervised research project topics include:

- Inorganic medicinal chemistry
- Metalloproteomics
- Development of inorganic analytical techniques

If you are interesting in studying any of these subject areas please contact Dr Coverdale directly, or for any general doctoral research enquiries, please email mdsgradschool@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

Dr Coverdale leads research in trace-element analysis and bioinorganic chemistry, investigating how metals influence health and disease and how this knowledge can be used to develop better medicines. His work combines inorganic and medicinal chemistry with advanced elemental-analysis methods to understand the distribution, speciation and biological activity of metals in complex systems.

A central focus is the development and application of elemental mass-spectrometry techniques, including metalloproteomics, speciation analysis and single-cell ICP-MS. These approaches enable metals and metal-containing medicines to be tracked at biologically relevant concentrations, revealing how they enter cells, where they accumulate and how they alter cellular processes.

Examples of recent work include:

• Developing single-cell methods to measure trace elements in individual cancer cells, offering a new way to evaluate next-generation therapeutics. Read the news story on First ever measure of boron in individual cancer cells.
• Developing improved approaches to measure non-ceruloplasmin-bound copper, a clinically important biomarker for assessing and monitoring Wilson's disease.
• Using metalloproteomic methods to investigate how metal-based anticancer compounds behave inside cells, supporting the design of more effective and selective therapies.

As Academic Lead for University of Birmingham's Trace Elements Facility, Dr Coverdale provides strategic leadership for specialist elemental-analysis capability. The facility supports interdisciplinary research, external consultancy and outreach, connecting researchers and partners with expertise in trace-element measurement and elemental speciation.

Alongside teaching and research, Dr Coverdale leads University of Birmingham's Trace Elements Facility. The facility provides specialist elemental-analysis expertise for collaborative projects, external consultancy and public engagement, helping translate advanced analytical science to a wide range of real-world questions.

James is committed to widening access to chemistry and pharmaceutical science. He contributes to outreach activities including ‘Salty Solutions’ and ‘Drug Discovery Beyond Carbon’, to explore the role of inorganic chemistry in health, medicines and everyday life.

He also contributes to the wider scientific community through peer review, editorial work and professional service. He is an elected member of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Dalton Community Council, an expert reviewer for the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), and a member of the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry Atomic Spectrometry Updates Editorial Board.