Matthew Fuchter

matt fuchter

Professor Matthew Fuchter

Professor of Chemistry

 

 

Research Interests

My group and I have broad research interests with an aim to make fundamental scientific advances that have strong potential for impact. We use chemical synthesis and physical science innovation to invent new methods, molecules, and materials to advance chemistry-led modern science. Enabled by our technical expertise in molecular design and synthesis, the following areas represent key themes:

The development of photoswitchable molecules and materials

Molecular photoswitches are molecules that can be reversibly interconverted between two states using light. Research into photoswitches has encountered a huge growth lately due to the desire to dynamically control a wide range of processes in a temporally and spatially selective manner; something that can be achieved in a functional system when addressed with light. For more than 10 years, we have been studying the development and application of heteroaromatic azo photoswitches. Our research has led to many exciting discoveries, particularly through the identification of switches that significantly outcompete the ubiquitously used azobenzene derivatives. The enhanced performance of our switches translates directly to the development of new/improved multidisciplinary applications that use our designs. Ongoing applications in our group span photopharmacology – biologically-active agents whose activity can be turned ‘on’ and ‘off’ with light, energy storage materials and supramolecular systems.

Chiral materials for technological applications

Chirality is a fundamental symmetry property; chiral objects, such as chiral molecules, exist as a pair of non-superimposable mirror images. Although chirality in molecular design is routinely considered in biologically focused application areas (such as drug discovery and chemical biology), other areas of scientific development have not considered chirality to be central to their approach. By harnessing the polarisation of photons and the spin of electrons, chirality provides a new approach to many applications, from bioimaging, to quantum information systems, to energy-efficient displays. We have advocated the potential of chiral conjugated materials for these next-generation technologies and beyond. We use a range of chiral systems, including chiral conjugated small molecules, polymers, nanomaterials (such as fullerenes) and hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite materials to explore the functional potential of chirality in optoelectronic technologies. These technologies include light-emitting (LED) and photodetecting (PD/PV) devices as well as a range of emerging sensors.

Drug Discovery Science

My group and I develop a range chemistry-led approaches to interrogate novel targets/techniques for the treatment of disease, with a particular technical focus on medicinal chemistry. We have studied a wide range of current and future drug targets – kinases, epigenetic enzymes, nuclear receptors, DNA repair proteins, muscle proteins – in a range of diseases – cancer, infectious diseases, cardiovascular disease, neurological diseases, etc. Our studies span efforts in curiosity-led basic science through to translational drug discovery. An area of particular interest has been the control of transcriptional events using small molecule inhibitors. Tight control of gene transcription is essential for cellular development and dysregulation of transcriptional programmes is a common mechanism that leads to the development and maintenance of disease. Using our developed inhibitors, we have defined new approaches to disease treatment and progressed inhibitors and therapeutic strategies into clinical evaluation.

Associated research themes

Advanced functional materials and interfaces

Chemistry at the interface with biology and medicine

Energy and sustainable chemistry

Innovative measurement and photon science

Synthesis
 

Biography

Matt Fuchter is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford and the Sydney Bailey Fellow in Chemistry at St Peter’s College Oxford. He runs a multidisciplinary research group with a broad array of interests in functional molecules, materials and medicines. In fundamental research, his work has significantly contributed to the development of chiral materials for optoelectronic applications and photoswitchable molecules for diverse functional applications. In translational research, he is an inventor of two different drugs (Samuraciclib and APL-4098) undergoing clinical trials for cancer therapy and is a Founder, Non-Executive Director and Head of Chemistry for NK:IO Ltd, an immune-oncology spinout company. His ORCID ID is https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1767-7072.

Matt completed PhD research at Imperial College London under the supervision of Professor A. G. M. Barrett, FRS FMedSci in 2006, and postdoctoral studies at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia, where he worked with Professor A. B. Holmes, AC FRS FAA FInstP in 2007. He was then appointed as the RCUK Academic Fellow at the School of Pharmacy (University of London) for one year before taking up a Lectureship at Imperial College London. At Imperial College he was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2012, Reader in 2015 and Professor in 2018. In 2024 he moved to his current position at the University of Oxford.

Matthew has been awarded several prizes in recognition of his work. These include the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize (2014), the 2018 Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award for Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, a Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists in the United Kingdom (2020), conferred by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences, the RSC Corday-Morgan Prize (2021), the RSC Stephanie L. Kwolek Award (2022), and the RSC BMCS Malcolm Campbell Memorial Prize (2023). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (since 2015) and the European Academy of Sciences (since 2023). 
 

Publications

Contact

matthew.fuchter@chem.ox.ac.uk

Research group

Fuchter group

College

St Peter's College

Spinout company

NK:IO Ltd