The main areas of research in the Department are summarised below. Further details of the work of individual members of staff within these areas will be sent on request or may be obtained by following the relevant hypertext link. Fragment coupling and ligation methodology are being applied to protein synthesis while glycosylation studies of synthetic erythropoietin and the synthesis of the human obese-gene protein are also in progress.
Protein folding studies on lysozyme and membrane proteins are also underway.
Structural and mechanistic aspects of enzymes involved in vitamin and cofactor synthesis, and the biosynthesis of carbocyclic nucleosides are being investigated. New developments in synthesis methodology involve the biocatalysis of asymmetric carbon-carbon bond formation and asymmetric reduction and design of new methods for the synthesis of glycolipids and glycoproteins. Research in heterocyclic chemistry is particularly strong and involves both reaction mechanism studies and the application of novel cyclisation reactions of heterocyclic cations, radicals, 1,3-dipolar intermediates, heterocumulenes, and isocyanides to the synthesis of important heterocyclic systems. Natural product synthesis is also a major interest as is the development of applied chiral catalysts for selective asymmetric synthesis and catalysts embodying the positive features of both heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis. Effort is also devoted to solid state reactions and in particular the development of new organic materials for optical, opto-electronic and electronic applications, as well as fullerene chemistry.