Professor Chris Willis

Research summary

Natural products isolated from bacteria, fungi and plants from both marine and terrestrial environments are a rich source of compounds of medicinal and agrochemical importance. We have published >130 papers which centre upon:-

• Structure elucidation and total synthesis of natural products
• Design and synthesis of probes to elucidate biosynthetic pathways and enzyme mechanisms
• Enantioselective synthesis of amino acids and heterocycles
• Isotopic labelling, biotransformations and reaction mechanisms

Professor Willis is a supervisor in the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Chemical Synthesis

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Links

• Willis Research Group

Recent publications

• Szwalbe, AJ, Williams, K, Song, Z, De Mattos-Shipley, K, Vincent, JL, Bailey, AM, Willis, CL, Cox, RJ & Simpson, TJ, 2019, ‘Characterisation of the biosynthetic pathway to agnestins A and B reveals the reductive route to chrysophanol in fungi’. Chemical Science, vol 10., pp. 233-238
• Wang, L, Parnell, A, Williams, C, Bakar, NA, Challand, MR, Kamp, MWvd, Simpson, TJ, Race, PR, Crump, MP & Willis, CL, 2018, ‘A Rieske oxygenase/epoxide hydrolase-catalysed reaction cascade creates oxygen heterocycles in mupirocin biosynthesis’. Nature Catalysis, vol 1., pp. 968-976

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View complete publications list in the University of Bristol publications system