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School of Life and Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Science and Technology
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Supramolecular and Medicinal Chemistry

Group Members

Dr Frederick Pfeffer
Prof Neil Barnett
Assoc Prof Kieran Lim
Ms Gail Dyson

Collaborators

Prof Peter Scammells (VCP Monash, Australia)
Prof Roger Nation (VCP Monash, Australia)
Prof Thorfinnur Gunnlaugsson (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
Dr Paul Kruger (University of Canterbury, New Zealand)

Students

Adam Lowe
Dan Priebbenow
Lauren Rufus
Megan Thornton
Rosalind Stok
Jesse Parkin-Gibbs
Nishan Ahmed

This research group is centred around organic chemistry and its applications; from anion recognition and sensing using fused polynorbornane hosts to antidiabetic agents and nature inspired amphiphilic antibiotics for medicinal use.

A key theme is conformational preorganisation, a notion that has been successfully been applied to the field of anion recognition where exceptionally strong binding has been realised using a preorganised urea functionalised host (pictured).  Preorganisation also plays a key role in the design of antibiotics targeting the cell wall of gram negative bacteria as amphiphilicity has been identified as a key factor in the success of polymyxin antibiotics such as colistin.