Title of Project

Medicinal Photochemistry: Synthesis and release of bioactive compounds

Name of Advisor/s

A/Prof Michael Oelgemoeller

College

College of Science & Engineering

Summary of Project

The neglect of organic photochemistry by the industrial R&D community has left a diverse structural pool of possible new lead structures almost completely unexplored. My Group at JCU has developed a series of useful photochemical transformations, which are applied to the synthesis of novel bioactive compounds. In particular, the photodecarboxylative (PDC) addition to phthalimides has been utilized in the synthesis of pharmacologically active alkyl- or arylmethylidene isoindolinones. Members of this important target family possess cardiovascular, anti-cancer and anesthetic properties. An alternative approach deals with photochemical macrocyclizations. The focus of this research area is to study photoinduced cyclization reactions of peptides and peptide analogues. The aims are twofold: (I) to identify new candidates for encapsulation, molecular recognition or sensoring and (II) to synthesize novel peptidomimetics. Interesting biologically active target families are benzodiazepines and pyrrolames. An additional research area deals with the photochemical release of pharmaceuticals, in particular photodynamic therapy (PDT) anti-cancer drugs.

Key Words

medicinal chemistry, organic chemistry, photochemistry, bioactive compounds

Would suit an applicant who

Interest in medicinal, organic and photochemistry.