School of Chemistry

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Organic and Biological Chemistry

The following people are in this group:

More about this group

Section head

The Organic and Biological Chemistry Section is one of the largest and most broadly based in the UK, with extensive research support provided by Research Councils and Industry.  Activities in Organic and Biological Chemistry are very broadly based and encompass a wide range of synthetic, supramolecular, physical organic, biological, environmental and analytical chemistry, with strong interdepartmental links to Biochemistry, Biological Sciences, Medical Sciences, Earth Sciences, and Pharmacology.

Priority research areas include:

Synthetic Methodology: including organometallic chemistry and catalysis, and its application to natural products and a wide range of compounds of biological importance, e.g. pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, toxins and biomarkers; wide experience in the preparation of isotopically labelled compounds for mechanistic, biosynthetic, metabolic and protein structural studies; heterocyclic and carbohydrate chemistry.

Bio-organic Chemistry: with emphasis on interdisciplinary work on the biosynthesis of polyketide antibiotics, enzyme mechanisms and design of enzyme inhibitors, NMR and X-ray protein structural studies, applications of enzymes in synthesis, protein design and engineering and bionanoscience applications, synthetic biology.

Physical Organic Chemistry and Supramolecular: including the detailed study of organic and organometallic reaction mechanism, including catalysis, and the development of new analytical tools and methodologies to do this; the synthesis of novel compounds to study intra- and intermolecular bonding to design novel receptor molecules, and to develop new materials and polymers with novel reactivities and properties.

Biogeochemistry and Bioanalytical: building on Bristol’s unique expertise in these areas of analytical chemistry of importance in industrial, environmental and academic applications. In addition, the bio-organic group provide expertise in the applications of a wide range of analytical and bioanalytical techniques of particular relevance to the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries.