Dr David Witty

David Witty joined Sygnature Discovery in 2024 as Chief Scientific Officer, bringing a wealth of experience from a distinguished career in drug research and development.

David’s career began at Reckitts in Hull, where he worked on adrenoreceptor antagonists and the manufacture of buprenorphine. After completing his graduate and postgraduate studies at Oxford University, focusing on sugar chemistry and antiviral nucleosides, he received a postdoctoral Fulbright scholarship to the University of Texas in Austin to investigate the chemical synthesis of fullerenes.

Upon returning to the UK, David worked at SB, later GSK, contributing to research in anti-infective, metabolic, cognitive, and neurological disorders. In 2010, he co-founded Convergence Pharmaceuticals, spinning out GSK’s pain portfolio into a start-up that was subsequently acquired by Biogen. David has been instrumental in launching several companies, including the consultancy Witnet and neuroplasticity company Eliem Therapeutics, where he served as VP Chemistry and IP until 2023.

For 16 years, David also served as Editor of the Elsevier journal Progress in Medicinal Chemistry. His recent focus has been on API and DP manufacturing, where his consultancy work has helped scale up several constrained peptidic toxin conjugates and complex poly-macrocyclic immuno-oncology candidates.

David has over 100 publications, including primary papers, reviews, patents, and book chapters. His work includes the synthesis of Vixotrigine and Interpidine. A long-standing member of SCI, David served as interim chair of the Board of Trustees in 2021. He was awarded the RSC BMCS Lectureship for 2019-20 and received the SCI Lampitt medal in 2022.