Waleed Hussein
Post-Doctoral Researcher
(2010-present)

Waleed obtained his Masters degree in 2002 from the Faculty of Pharmacy at Helwan University in Cairo, Egypt. He took up a position as an assistant lecturer in the Organic Department of Helwan University, and he later obtained an Egyptian government PhD scholarship to study abroad. He began his studies in the group in 2006. His work involved the synthesis of partially fluorinated lipids for template-mediated membrane protein crystallisation. Waleed's PhD work resulted in a paper in the Journal of Organic Chemistry and a major review in Current Organic Chemistry.

Following his PhD, Waleed has been a Post-Doctoral Researcher in the group, co-supervising PhD and Honours students. In 2011 Waleed was appointed as a Lecturer in the Department of Pharmaceutical Organic Chemistry at Helwan University, Egypt.

Faridoon
Visiting Scientist
(2011)

Faridoon is a PhD scholar and a visiting scientist from the University of Peshawar, Pakistan. His PhD supervisor is Professor Dr. Nazar ul Islam, and his project deals with the synthesis and biological activity of penicillin conjugates.

Faridoon is the recipient of a prestigious Higher Education Commission Scholarship form his Government, which allows him to spend six months in our group.

Daniel Tan
Visiting Scientist
(2011)

Daniel is a Masters student and visiting scientist from the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) where his project, concerning the synthesis and biological properties of juglone derivatives, is supervised by Dr Hasnah Osman.

Daniel was awarded a prestigious Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Research Fellowship from the Australian Government.

Victoria Bulin
Visiting Scientist
(2011)

Victoria is a an undergraduate chemistry intern visiting our group from the University of Maine (Le Mans, France).

Omid Arjomandi
PhD Student
(2011-present)

Feng-Ling Wu
PhD Student
(2006-present)

Meng-Wei (Annie) Kan
PhD Student
(2007-present)

Peter Vella
PhD Student
(2009-present)

Peter obtained an Honours degree in 2009 under the joint supervision of Dr Gary Schenk and myself. After being awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award PhD scholarship, Peter has continued his studies, examining the properties and inhibitors of purple acid phosphatase and metallo-b-lactamases.

Peter's work has led to two publications in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry letters.

Jed Burns
Honours Student
(2011)

Jed joined as an Honours student in 2011, after some research experience as an undergraduate student in the group the previous year.

Jed's project involves examining some new reactions of 2-mercaptobenzothiazole derivatives as a route to developing some new synthetic methodologies.

Dr Benjamin Ross
Post-doctoral Researcher
(2004-2006)

Ben received his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from UQ's School of Pharmacy in 2004.  His principle supervisor was Professor Istvan Tooth, and he was co-supervised by Dr Joanne Blanchfield and myself.

Ben joined the group in April 2004 where he was employed initially on company-supported research aimed at the development of anti-obesity compounds.

Ben was appointed as a Lecturer in UQ's School of Pharmacy in June 2006 and we continue to collaborate on a number of projects.

Kelly Cosgrove
PhD student
(2005-2009)

After being awarded a first-class Honours degree in 2004, Kelly was awarded a UQ Postgraduate Research Scholarship (UQPRS) to study for a PhD. Kelly has investigated various aspects of the Claisen rearrangement, particularly the roles that substituents have on the rates of this reaction and the use of Lewis acids to promote the reactions.

In 2007, Kelly was awarded a UQ travel scholarship that allowed her to visit the lab of Professor Paul Murphy in Dublin, Ireland.

Kelly's work has been published in Synlett (2 papers), Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry and The Australian Journal of Chemistry and Tetrahedron.

Kelly now works at the Eskitis Institute at Griffith University.

Hoang Lam Pham
PhD Student
(2006-2008)

Lam's primary supervisors were Dr Nigel Davies and then Dr Ben Ross in the School of Pharmacy, UQ. Lam's PhD work (supported by the Vietnamese government) involved the use of semi-synthetic ISCOMs for vaccine delivery.

Lam's PhD work has been published in Current Drug Delivery and The International Journal of Pharmaceutics.

Lam has now returned to Vietnam where he has a Lectureship.

Siti Hajar Mohd Pahmi
Honours Student
(2010)

Hajar completed her Honours project in Biotechnology in the group where she worked on the design, synthesis and assaying of inhibitors of purple acid phosphatase. Her work resulted in the identification of the most potent inhibitor of this enzyme so far.

Her work was published in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters and she was awarded a first-class Honours degree.

Jeff Mak
Honours Student
(2007)

Jeff worked in my lab as an undergraduate student in 2006, and then stayed on to complete his Honours degree in the group in 2007, working on the synthesis of inhibitors of the enzyme purple acid phosphatase. After obtaining a first-class Honours degree Jeff joined Craig Williams' group for a PhD.

Jeff's work has led to a publication in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters.

Quoc Bao Tran
Honours Student
(2006)

Bao joined the group in 2006 to work on a project aimed at making analogs of suramin, a large polysulfonated aromatic drug.

Boa's work led to publications in Tetrahedron and Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry.

Bao is currently studying medicine at UQ.

Andrew Bennett
Honours student
(2005)

Andrew undertook his Honours year in the group in 2005 when he worked on a medicinal chemistry project funded by the UQ start-up company Adipogen.  

Andrew's Honours year was supported by a scholarship from UnIChe, a collaborative venture aiming to encourage industry-university interactions, and to attract and retain the ablest students in the study of chemistry. After graduating with a first-class Honours degree, Andrew took up a position at the BP Refinery in Brisbane.

Andrew's work led to publications in Tetrahedron and Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry.

Kirsten Lawrie
Honours student
(2005)

Kirsten joined the group as an Honours student in 2005, working on the synthesis and biophysical properties of synthetic melanins, in a collaborative project with Dr Paul Meredith of UQ's Physics Department. Kirsten obtained a first-class Honours degree. She then took a year off to travel before eventually starting a PhD at UQ.

Kirsten's work resulted in a publication in Photochemistry and Photobiology.

Hilary Anderson
Undergraduate Student
(2004/2005)

Hilary joined the group in November 2004 as a summer vacation student (BIOL3044).   Her work involved the preparation of some aromatic building blocks that will be useful in the synthesis of analogues of the drug suramin.

Kay Wurdinger
Undergraduate Student
(2004)

Sian Patterson
Undergraduate Student
(2005/2006)

Sian joined the group in late 2005 as a summer vacation student (BIOL3044). She gained experience in a range of organic chemistry laboratory techniques and chemical reactions.