Matthew OBrien

Biography

I was appointed to a lectureship in organic chemistry at Keele in the summer of 2012, moving here from Cambridge University where I was a fellow and Director-of-Studies for Natural Sciences at Pembroke College.

I was an undergraduate at York University and, after graduating, took up an industrial position as a medicinal synthetic chemist at Zeneca (now AstraZeneca) Pharmaceuticals. I returned to academia to study for a PhD under the supervision of Professor Jim Thomas at the University of Manchester where I worked towards the total-synthesis of the bryostatin family of natural products.

After a Post-Doctoral research period working with Professor Ian Paterson FRS in Cambridge on the total-synthesis of the marine macrolide discodermolide I was appointed as the Kinerton Lecturer of Organic Chemistry at Trinity College Dublin. My main research focus in Dublin was remote asymmetry, particularly the use of spiroketal scaffolds to facilitate long range asymmetric induction.

After 3 years in Dublin I returned to the UK to work with Professor Steven V. Ley  CBE FRS in Cambridge where I was appointed as a fellow of Pembroke College. Aside from working on the Total-Synthesis of natural products, I invented a new method (using the Teflon AF-2400 gas permeable membrane) of using gases for synthetic chemistry in continuous flow.

Research and scholarship

Our research is focused on two key themes.

In addition to the generation of novel stereoselective synthetic methodologies and the total synthesis of biologically active natural products, we are also very interested in the development of new enabling technologies for automated chemical synthesis, particularly in the area of continuous-flow chemistry. A recent example of this is a continuous-flow inline liquid-liquid extraction system that uses a computer-vision approach (OpenCV/Python) to control the position of the interface (link: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2012/OB/c2ob25912e#!divAbstract).

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Teaching

• CHE20001: Organic Synthesis and Catalysis
• CHE20012: Drugs of Abuse
• CHE20029: Radicals, Phases and Supramolecular Chemistry (Module Leader)
• CHE30002/40/41: Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry Research Projects
• CHE30010: Forensic Toxicology
• CHE30029: Forensic Science Dissertation
• CHE30037: Topics in Chemistry
• CHE30039: Advanced Organic Chemistry (Module Leader)