My research interests focus on the application of solution-state NMR techniques to a variety of problems in organic chemistry and chemical biology. Some examples of research areas in which I am currently involved included:
Protein-ligand binding studies and enzyme mechanism
The interaction of small molecule keys with numerous protein targets is of interest to a number of groups in the CRL (Profs Chris Schofield and Ben Davis, for example) and we studying such protein-ligand binding events with NMR methods such as saturation transfer difference and investigate the products and kinetics of enzyme catalysis, which often involves working with very small sample quantities.
Carbohydrate chemistry
NMR spectroscopy is used to support many strands of investigation involving synthetic oligosaccharides, including their structures, interactions and enzyme processing.
NMR diffusion studies of molecular size, shape and interactions
The study of molecular mobility in solution is now amenable to study by NMR spectroscopy on suitably equipped modern NMR instruments through new pulsed field gradient techniques, with new methods still appearing in the literature. There are many areas in small molecule NMR where the characterisation of molecular associations has notable significance, including peptide aggregation, organometallic complexation, small-molecule encapsulation (host-guest chemistry), supramolecular systems and so on. We are employing NMR-based diffusion studies in collaborations with a number of groups in the department to look at the solution-state properties of various systems.
Chemistry Part IIs
I usually have 1 or 2 places available for Chemistry Part II studies. These are focussed on the applications of NMR spectroscopy and do not involve synthetic chemistry, detailed physical theory or programming. Please contact me directly if you are interested in such possibilities.