Colin has been at the forefront of applying structural information and data science approaches to drug discovery and development and has many publications and patents in this area. He is responsible for introducing the concept of the ‘druggable genome’. His work on crystallographic mapping of protein-ligand binding sites and the concept of ‘ligand efficiency’ has helped shaped the way in which medicinal chemistry is practised and how the pharmaceutical industry identifies chemical leads. Colin has contributed to many drug-discovery projects and is an author of the patent describing the structure of PDE-5, the target of Viagra.