School of Physical and Geographical Sciences

I came to Keele in January 2008, after a varied academic background.  I carried out my UG and PhD degrees in Chemistry at Oxford, and then took up a lectureship at York in 1983 (although I had originally intended to be a schoolteacher in 'Chemistry and Outdoor Pursuits').  I took up the Chair of Organic Chemistry at Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh) in 1993, and then moved to Manchester in 2001 as Professor of Organic Chemistry, and then as the Dean for Teaching & Learning in Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (overseeing 8000 students).  I've run a medium-sized research group (6-10 people) in medicinal/synthetic chemistry, but I've also been very involved in developing new teaching methods in universities (awarded National Teaching Fellowship in 2005), and in outreach activities to schools and the general public.

My research has focused on four main themes:
1) Work on protein mechanisms, most recently on peptide transporters.
2) The synthesis of alkaloids (toxic natural products, that often have valuable pharmaceutical properties if used/developed in the right way), especially:

• indole akaloids, including ones used to treat heart conditions;
• piperidine alkaloids, particularly using Diels-Alder chemistry.

3) Studies on the synthesis and properties of ususual macrocycles.
My research has been recognized by a Yorkshire Cancer Research Campaign career development award (1986-91), the Zeneca Research Award for Organic Chemistry in 1994, and election to the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1999).

Two current projects are especially exciting; we're close to completing (we hope!) the first really efficient synthesis of an indole alkaloid called ajmaline, which is used to treat patients with irregular heartbeat, and has 9 adjacent chiral centres in its amazing 3D structure.  Secondly, we have been studying how to help the uptake of pharmaceutically important compounds that aren't orally absorbed; we now have a way of attaching such molecules to a special carrier, allowing them to be 'smuggled' into the bloodstream in tablet form.

More information is available on my research group's website.