Stephen Neidle was educated at Imperial College (BSc and PhD Chemistry). After postdoctoral work with M Hursthouse, he joined the Biophysics Department, King's College London where he continued his structural studies on nucleic acids, working on the structure of anticancer drugs like doxorubicin, and the complexes between intercalating drugs and DNA. He was appointed to the Chair of Biophysics at Institute of Cancer Research in 1990, moved to the School of Pharmacy, UCL in 2002 and has won numerous prizes for medicinal chemistry. His novel antibiotic for C. difficile infection, Ridinilazole, has passed phase III clinical trials. A major current focus is on cancer and amyloid therapeutics.