Journal of Pharmaceutics & Drug Development

Donald Cairns obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy from the University of Strathclyde in 1980 and after a pre-registration year spent in hospital pharmacy, he returned to Strathclyde to undertake a PhD on the synthesis and properties of benzylimidazolines. Following a year as a post-doctoral research fellow in the department of pharmacy at Sunderland Polytechnic (now the University of Sunderland), Dr Cairns moved to Leicester Polytechnic (now De Montfort University) where he held a five-year lectureship in pharmacy. In 1992 Dr Cairns was appointed senior lecturer in medicinal chemistry in Sunderland School of Pharmacy and in 2003 moved to a post of Associate Head of the School of Pharmacy at The Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. In 2006, he was promoted to Professor of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry at RGU and in 2012 was appointed Head of the School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences.

Professor Cairns has served as external examiner at Strathclyde, Liverpool, Aberdeen, Belfast and Keele Schools of Pharmacy and has authored over 70 peer reviewed research papers.

Professor Cairn's research interests include the design and synthesis of selective anticancer agents, the molecular modelling of drug / DNA interactions and the design of prodrugs for the treatment of nephropathic cystinosis.

Donald Cairns is a member of the General Pharmaceutical Council, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, The Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists and in 2008 was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. In 2006 he was appointed to the British Pharmacopoeia Commission and serves as Vice Chair of an Expert Advisory Group on Medicinal Chemistry.