Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Development

About

Medicinal chemistry is focused on the development of drugs, which could be either small molecules or peptides and proteins, for treatment of disease. Modern medicinal chemistry and drug development is highly interdisciplinary and encompasses synthetic organic chemistry, enzymology, biophysical techniques (including protein NMR, protein crystallography and the study of protein-ligand interactions), computational chemistry, protein engineering and pharmacology.

Groups

Jackson Group

Our research interests lie at the interface between biology, chemistry and physics where fundamental chemistry underlies biological function.

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Malins Group

The Malins group develops synthetic tools for small molecule, peptide and protein synthesis, including for applications in chemical biology and drug discovery.

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McLeod Group

The McLeod group employs a wide range of techniques to study drug metabolism.

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Nisbet Group

The Nisbet Lab is focused on developing advanced biomaterials along three themes: Neural Tissue and Bone Tissue Engineering and Drug & Viral Vector Delivery.

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Nitsche Group

We develop chemical tools to target, manipulate and study peptides and proteins related to infectious diseases.

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Sherburn Group

Our research program involves the design of sequences of cycloaddition reactions, free radical reactions and transition metal-mediated reactions

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Facilities

Separation and Reaction Facility

Electrochemical reactors for preparative organic synthesis.

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Projects

A Trojan horse to combat malaria / Anti-doping chemistry / Enzyme engineering / Exploring the ‘sulfatome’

A Trojan horse to combat malaria, Anti-doping chemistry, Enzyme engineering and Exploring the ‘sulfatome’.

Student intake

Open for Honours, PhD students

Allosteric inhibitors / Neobiochemistry / Engineering an insulin biosensor.

Allosteric inhibitors, Neobiochemistry and Engineering an insulin biosensor.

Student intake

Open for Honours, PhD students

Computer-aided drug design / Antimicrobial resistance / Membrane biophysics

Computer-aided drug design , Antimicrobial resistance and membrane biophysics.

Student intake

Open for Honours, PhD students

Domino Reactions / Step Economic Total Synthesis / Synthesising Designed Molecules

Domino Reactions, Step Economic Total Synthesis and Synthesising Designed Molecules.

Student intake

Open for Honours, PhD students

Inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 / Therapeutics for dengue fever / Bicyclic peptides

Infectious viruses such as dengue, Zika, West Nile, Chikungunya or SARS-CoV-2 have common Achilles heel: their protease. Proteases are key enzymes of viral replication and promising drug targets. The project explores constrained peptides targeting proteases available in our lab from flavi-, alpha- and coronaviruses