Professor Chris Willis
B.Sc.(Lond.), D.Phil.(Sus.)
Current positions
Professor of Organic Chemistry
School of Chemistry
Contact
Media contact
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Research interests
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
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
8083 BBSRC - Prof Chris Willis Unlocking the potential
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of ChemistryDates
01/10/2019 to 30/09/2022
Structural and Mechanistic Investigations of Antibiotic Production in Bacteria
Principal Investigator
Description
There is an indisputable problem of antibiotic resistance and an urgent need for the discovery and development of new antibiotics that are cost effective to produce. In February 2017, the…Managing organisational unit
School of ChemistryDates
Exploring Nature's Silent Pharmacy
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of ChemistryDates
01/09/2016 to 31/12/2021
Revised: Engineering Trans-AT PKS antibiotic gene cluster to deliver bioactive compounds
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of ChemistryDates
31/07/2014 to 31/03/2022
BBSRC Strategic LoLa
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of ChemistryDates
01/08/2013 to 31/07/2018
Thesis supervisions
Photochemistry and Catalysis
Supervisors
Synthetic Strategies to Natural Antibiotics and Novel Derivatives
Supervisors
Synthetic Studies on Diarylheptanoids and Diterpenes
Supervisors
Structural and Functional Interrogation of the Abyssomicin C Biosynthetic Pathway
Supervisors
Developing a ‘Reverse-Biomimetic’ Synthesis of Arogenate and its Analogues using a Dearomatising Intramolecular Acylation Strategy.
Supervisors
Lithiation—Borylation Methodology
Supervisors
Mechanisms for the Generation of Structural Diversity in Polyketide Biosynthesis
Supervisors
Maleidride Natural Products
Supervisors
[2+2]-Photocycloaddition Reactions in the Synthesis of Novel Scaffolds and Natural Products
Supervisors
Synthesis of Novel Substrates to Probe the Specificities of Mupirocin Enzymes
Supervisors
Publications
Recent publications
28/06/2021Ambruticins: Tetrahydropyran Ring Formation and Total Synthesis
Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry
A New Micromonospora Strain with Antibiotic Activity Isolated from the Microbiome of a Mid-Atlantic Deep-Sea Sponge
Marine Drugs
Cleaning the Cellular Factory
Frontiers in Fungal Biology
A Bioinspired Strategy for the Enantioselective Synthesis of Bicyclic Oxygen Heterocycles
Organic Letters
ACE2 activation protects against cognitive decline and reduces amyloid pathology in the Tg2576 mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease
Acta Neuropathologica