Academic Staff

Biography

• 2002-2006 Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, University of Western Australia
• 2006-2008 Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, University of Oxford
• 2009-present Lecturer in Chemistry, La Trobe University

Teaching Responsibilities

• CHE1APL Applications of Chemistry
• CHE4 Honours Chemistry

Research Expertise

We are interested in the synthesis and development of sensors and molecular imaging agents. Organic and inorganic synthetic procedures in combination with a wide range of analytical techniques (NMR, EPR, UV/vis, fluorescence, mass spectrometry, electrochemistry and X ray crystallography) are used for the generation and characterisation of new compounds. Applications of interest are primarily in the biological sphere and sensors for the detection of biologically important anions and radiopharmaceutical imaging agents for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease are under development.

Molecular imaging Agents for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common neurodegenerative disease among people aged 65 and older. In recent years much progress has been made in terms of understanding the fundamental biology of the disease and in the development of medicinal approaches for its treatment. The pathology of Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by the deposition in the brain of extracellular amyloid plaques composed of a 42 amino acid peptide called amyloid β (Aβ) and it is believed that these plaques play a role in neurodegeneration. We are interested in the development of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging agents for the early detection and diagnosis of Alzheimer’ disease. Technetium-99m (^99mTc) is the most commonly used radioisotope for molecular imaging and in collaboration with Dr Kevin Barnham from the Department of Pathology at The University of Melbourne, we are developing ^99mTc imaging agents targeted to the Amyloid plaques of Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, synthetic approaches are being developed using rhenium and these will be transferred to ^99mTc. Some examples of complexes that have been synthesised are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Structures of Re analogues of potential ^99mTc molecular imaging agents for Alzheimer’s disease.

Anion Sensors and supramolecular chemistry

We are interested in the synthesis of new organic / inorganic frameworks for use as biological sensors and probes. Of particular interest is the generation of new luminescent compounds and in previous work we have studied the distribution of luminescent dinuclear Au(I) N-heterocyclic carbene complexes (Figure 2) in cultured cancer cell lines (Figure 3).


Figure 2. Luminescent dinuclear Au(I) N-heterocyclic carbene complex.

Figure 3. Distribution of luminescent Au(I) complex in cancer cells.