Robert Charles Hider

Robert Charles Hider (born 1943, London) is a Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at King's College London. He is a specialist in therapeutic iron chelators. Education After education at Winslade School, Exeter, Hider attended King's College London as a BSc chemistry and physics undergraduate (1961–64), and then obtained a Ph.D. there in synthetic chemistry (1967). Academic career Holder began a career in biological chemistry in the endocrinology department of St Thomas's Hospital Medical School under the supervision of David London. He studied the influence of insulin on muscle protein synthesis. In 1970 he was appointed as the first lecturer in biological chemistry at Essex University and initiated the biological chemistry degree. During this period his research was directed towards the study of membranes, the mechanisms of penetration of such structures and their mode of interaction with animal toxins. In 1977 he was awarded sabbatical leave and worked with Joe Neilands, in the Department of Biochemistry, the University of California, Berkeley. This laboratory was centred on siderophore chemistry and biochemistry On return to the UK, Hider in collaboration with Ernest Huehns, developed the first orally active iron chelator, deferiprone, which was introduced into clinical trials by Victor Hoffbrand in 1987. During this decade he was promoted to senior lecturer and then to reader. Deferiprone is currently used worldwide for the treatment of transfusion – induced iron overload, which is associated with β-thalassaemia and sickle cell anaemia.