Dr Fred Pfeffer
  Phone   +61 3 522 71439
Email   fred.pfeffer@deakin.edu.au
Position   Senior Lecturer
Campus   Geelong
Research grouping   Chemistry and Forensic Sciences

Dr Pfeffer received his PhD from Deakin University in 2001. He then spent a year lecturing at Trinity
College Dublin (TCD) then a further 14 months at TCD as a postdoctoral research fellow working with
Professor Thorfinnur Gunnlaugsson on the synthesis and evaluation of fluorescent anion sensors.

Dr Pfeffer returned to Deakin in 2004 to the faculty of Science and Technology as a lecturer. He
continues to pursue research in the field of supramolecular anion recognition chemistry but has also
developed several successful medicinal chemistry programs including the synthesis of new antibiotic and
antidiabetic agents. At the core of these programs is the appreciation and understanding of how
molecules interconvert and interact—fundamental topics in chemistry.

Research interests

  1. Supramolecular anion recognition and sensing using conformationally preorganised frameworks (collaboration with Prof Thorfinnur Gunnlaugsson from TCD Ireland)
  2. Synthesis of new antibiotics based on polymyxins and the defensins (collaboration with Prof Roger Nation and Dr Jian Li at Monash MIPS)
  3. New methodology for heterocyclic antidiabetic agents (Collaboration with Dr Scott Stewart from UWA and Prof Ken Walder and Dr Nicky Konstantopoulos from MRU Deakin and Dr Guy Krippner from Verva)


Career

1996 BSc hons (Deakin)
2001 PhD (Deakin)
2001–2004 Contract lectureship and postdoctoral fellow (Trinity College Dublin)
2004 Lectureship (Deakin)
2009 Senior Lecturer (Deakin)

Key publications

Priebbenow, Daniel L.; Stewart, Scott G.; Pfeffer, Frederick M. (2011 ) A general approach to N-heterocyclic scaffolds using domino Heck-aza-Michael reactions Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry 9, 1508-1515

Duke, RM; Veale, EB; Pfeffer, FM; Kruger, PE; Gunnlaugsson, T (2010) Colorimetric and fluorescent anion sensors: an overview of recent developments in the use of 1,8-naphthalimide-based chemosensors Chemical Society Reviews 39 , 3936-3953

L. C. Henderson, J. Li, R. L. Nation, T. Velkov and F. M. Pfeffer (2010) Developing an anion host for lipid A binding and antibacterial activity Chemical Communications 18, 3197-3199

F. M. Pfeffer and A. J. Lowe (2008) Size matters—strong binding of the terephthalate dianion by thiourea functionalised fused [n]polynorbornane hosts Chemical Communications 16, 1971-1873

L. D. Van Vliet, T. Ellis, P. J. Foley, L. Liu, F. M. Pfeffer, R. A. Russell, R. N. Warrener, F. Hollfelder and M. J. Waring (2007) Molecular Recognition of DNA by Rigid [n]-Polynorbornane-Derived Bifunctional Intercalators: Synthesis and Evaluation of their Binding Properties Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 50 , 2326–2340

View entire list of audited publications

Professional activities

Member ACS, RACI
Refereree for ACS & RSC journals amongst others

Related links

Thorri's home page at TCD Ireland
www.tcd.ie/Chemistry/staff/peo ple/gunnlaugsson.php

Professor Roger Nation at Monash
www.pharm.monash.edu.au/depart ments/pharmpract/staff/rnation .html

the Metabolic Research Unit (MRU) at Deakin
http://www.deakin.edu.au/hmnbs /mru/

 

Postdoctoral fellows

NameProject title
Luke Henderson (2008-2010)New antibiotics inspired by nature Trent Ashton (2010- )New Antidiabetic Agents - LP100100087  

 

PhD students

Student nameThesis title
Adam Lowe (awarded)Anion recognition using conformationally preorganised [n]polynorbornane hosts. Now at QuantaLife Inc. California Dan Priebbenow (awarded)A Novel Palladium-Catalysed Approach to Functionalised N-Heterocycles. Now Von Humboldt Fellow at University of Aachen Megan Thornton (4th year)Functionalised flavonoids for use as designed multiple ligands Ben Long (3rd year)Polynorbornane based antibiotics mimicking vancomycin Simren Khosa (3rd year)A new class of membrane permeabilising antimicrobial peptide mimics Mark Johnstone (2nd year)Supramolecular chemistry of functionalised polynorbornane frameworks Cassi Fleming (2nd year)New small heterocycle synthesis and the development of selective HDAC inhibitors Shane Hickey (1st year)New norbornane peptide hybrids as antimicrobial agents  

 

Honours students

Student nameThesis title Ben Long (2009)Polynorbornane based antibiotics Simren Khosa (2009)Colistin mimcs: maximising London disersion forces Cassi Fleming (2009 mid)microwave synthesis and functionalisation of 1,3,4-thiadiazoles Linden Servinis (2009 mid)Syntheis of Functionalised Indole-2- and indole-3-carboxylic acids as potential antidiabetic agents Mark Johnstone (2010)Conformationally preorganised anion sensors using excmier formation and FRET based systems Shane Hickey (2011)Small conformationally organised poycationic antimicrobials Matt Wride (2011)Antimicrobial polymers using a ROMP approach Genevieve Crowle (2012)functionalised silk nanofibres as scaffolds for tissue engineering Ryan Robson (2012)Antibiotics targetting gram positive bacteria  

 

Teaching areas

Organic Chemistry at all year levels.
Unit chair for SBC214 Organic Chemistry and SBC318 Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry


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22nd September 2011