The Department of Chemistry undertakes research across the full range of modern chemical science, including several areas with direct relevance to immunology, inflammation and infection. Approaches include chemical biology and proteomics, synthetic chemistry and drug discovery, drug delivery and nanomaterials, methods for vaccine design and manufacture, diagnostic development, artificial cells, glycoprotein biology, antibody engineering, high-resolution imaging, and cell therapy. We also host the Institute of Chemical Biology Centre for Doctoral Training in Chemical Biology and the Imperial MRes in Drug Discovery and Development course, which support a wide range of postgraduate training in immunity and inflammation.
Prominent examples of our work in this space include:
- Development of anti-inflammatory nanomedicines that deliver potent innate inflammation resolving peptides and proteins, with excellent efficacy in a range of chronic inflammatory disease models, including atherosclerosis, IBD (Crohn’s and Colitis, anastomosis), stroke, ischemia reperfusion injury and kidney fibrosis.
- Stimuli-responsive nanogels that can release innate anti-oxidising enzymes and anti-ROS enzymes.
- Designer antibodies using integrated discovery strategies to study and treat neurodegeneration and dementia.
- Establishment of NK:IO Ltd., an Imperial spinout company focused on harnessing the power of natural killer cells for the immunotherapy of cancer, jointly founded by Professor Matt Fuchter (Chemistry) and Professor Hugh Brady (Life Sciences).
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- "Structure-activity relationship studies of a novel class of transmission blocking antimalarials targeting male gametes" Rueda-Zubiaurre, A.; Yahiya, S.; Fischer, O.; Hu, X.; Saunders, C.; Sharma, S.; Straschil, U.; Shen, J.; Tate, E. W.; Delves, M.; Baum, J.; Barnard, A.; Fuchter, M. J. J. Med. Chem. 2020, 63, 2240.
- "Synthetic studies on the reverse antibiotic natural products, the nybomycins" Bardell-Cox, O. A.; White, A. J. P.; Aragón, L.; Fuchter, M. J. MedChemComm. 2019, 10, 1438.
- "Glycosylated nanoparticles derived from RAFT polymerization for effective drug delivery to macrophages" Rushworth, J.; Montgomery, K.; Cao, B.; Brown, R.; Dibb, N.; Nilsson, S. K.; Chiefari, J.; Fuchter, M. J. ACS Appl. Bio Mater. 2020, 3, 5775.
- “Natural Killer Cell Expansion” Fuchter, M. J.; Brady, H. 2018, WO2018/158587
- Rawson, T. M. et al. "Optimizing antimicrobial use: challenges, advances and opportunities". Nat Rev Microbiol 1–12 (2021) doi:10.1038/s41579-021-00578-9.
- Rawson, T. M. et al. "Microneedle biosensors for real-time, minimally invasive drug monitoring of phenoxymethylpenicillin: a first-in-human evaluation in healthy volunteers". The Lancet Digital Health 1, e335–e343 (2019).
- Le, T. T. et al. "Dual Recognition Element Lateral Flow Assay Toward Multiplex Strain Specific Influenza Virus Detection". Anal Chem 89, 6781–6786 (2017).
- Stefan Reischl et al. "Ac2-26-Nanoparticles Induce Resolution of Intestinal Inflammation and Anastomotic Healing via Inhibition of NF-κB Signaling in a Model of Perioperative Colitis", Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Volume 27, Issue 9, September 2021, Pages 1379–1393
- "Simultaneous Cross-Linking and Cross-Polymerization of Enzyme Responsive Polyethylene Glycol Nanogels in Confined Aqueous Droplets for Reduction of Low-Density Lipoprotein Oxidation" Suman Basak et al. Biomacromolecules 2021 22 (2), 386-398
- "Rational design of a conformation-specific antibody for the quantification of Aβ oligomers" Francesco A. Aprile et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jun 2020, 117 (24) 13509-13518
- "Selective targeting of primary and secondary nucleation pathways in Aβ42 aggregation using a rational antibody scanning method" Francesco A. Aprile et al. Science Advances Jun 2017
Members
Dr Francesco Aprile
Dr Francesco Aprile
Future Leadership Fellow
Professor Alan Armstrong
Professor Alan Armstrong
Professor of Organic Synthesis
Professor Tony Cass
Professor Tony Cass
Professor of Chemistry
Professor Oscar Ces
Professor Oscar Ces
Head of Department of Chemistry, Prof of Chemical Biology
Dr Marco Di Antonio
Dr Marco Di Antonio
Advanced Research Fellow (BBSRC Fellow)
Professor Matthew Fuchter
Professor Matthew Fuchter
Professor of Chemistry
Dr Nazila Kamaly
Dr Nazila Kamaly
Lecturer
Dr Marina Kuimova
Dr Marina Kuimova
Reader in Chemical Physics
Dr Benjamin Schumann
Dr Benjamin Schumann
Lecturer
Professor Ed Tate
Professor Ed Tate
Professor of Chemical Biology
Professor Ramon Vilar
Professor Ramon Vilar
Professor of Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry