Honours Projects 2009
Medicinal chemistry involves the design, synthesis and development of the molecules we need in order to understand, prevent and treat disease. Research projects in medicinal chemistry primarily use the practical skills required for synthetic organic chemistry, sometimes with the opportunity to undertake molecular modelling and/or biological assays depending on the interests of the student and the progress of the project. For more information on these projects, please contact Dr Abbott.
- Synthesis of peptide nucleic acid conjugates
- Picroroccellin - a lost medicinal product?
- Design and synthesis of novel PDK1 inhibitors
Research in our group is focused on expanding the bounds of Analytical Chemistry. We seek to develop new chemistries and new technologies which will result in exquisitely low detection limits, enhanced selectivity and miniaturised instruments which can be used in the real world outside of the laboratory setting.
- Lab-on-a-Chip: miniaturized opto-electrochemical sensors
- Electrochemically modulated FRET from assemblies of quantum dots and transition metal complexes
- Synthesis and applications of highly luminescent iridium complexes
- Nanostructured luminescent interfaces for sensing applications: surface active iridium and ruthenium complexes
- Flow injection analysis (FIA): rapid sensitive detection of pharmaceuticals by ECL
- Phenanthroline ligand synthesis
- Rational synthesis of fullerenes and related molecules
- Developing "click" chemistry; nitrile oxides
- Peptide dimers chemistry
- Silicon chemistry
- Benzotriazole chemistry
- Glucosinolates
- Modified peptide solid phase synthesis
- The cyclic tetrapeptide project
- Pseudo-prolines
- Non-racemisable 2-oxotetrahydroisoquinoline as antimalarials
Our research in analytical and environmental chemistry is associated with the development of sensor and polymer membrane technology for the extraction and sensing of environmental, biological and industrial analytes. Sensor miniaturisation is an important research direction in analytical chemistry. Polymer technology can be applied to the production of polymer inclusion membranes (PIMs) and polymer based microspheres having encapsulated sensing chemistry. These microspheres offer an advantage, in that the analyte specific sensing reagents are protected in the polymer matrix from likely chemical interferences, compared to "traditional" sensors having exposed surface modified sensing chemistries. Microsphere sensors can be applied in a flow injection analysis system, specifically configured for stop-flow analysis, to monitor the absorbance, fluorescence or electrochemical response.
Preparation of sensors to target Endocrine Disruptor Chemicals (EDCs) is an important research area. EDCs affect the hormone system by mimicking the chemical action of natural hormones like estrogen and androgen. Health risks, such as hormone related cancers and reduced fertility are associated with EDCs in the environment. Sources of EDCs in surface waters include: pharmaceutical wastes and metabolites, agricultural run-off of herbicides and insecticides, and industrial wastes from manufacturing and chemical processing, etc.
- Development of polymer inclusion membranes or microspheres for sensor applications
- Development of novel polymer matrices or sensing reagents for sensor applications
Our group uses computer calculations to determine the structures and properties of molecules and also to help understand how molecules react. The ability to predict reliable energetics and molecular properties represents a very important application of computational chemistry, and is a major focus of our research. In effect, in many cases we are modelling events that take place in a mass spectrometer. If you are interested in "doing chemistry" using a computer, then research in computational chemistry may be of interest to you. Research projects are available in the following broad areas:
- Molecular properties of metallocenes
- QM/MM modelling
- Modified amino acids
- Glucosinolates – molecules of biological/agricultural importance
- Transition metal chemistry
- Radical chemistry
- Expanding the proton affinity scale
- Modelling NMR and molecular magnetic properties