RESEARCH IN FOCUS
Organic Synthesis
Natural Products
Drug Discovery
Supervisors: Professor Stephen G. Pyne and Dr. Alison Ung
What are you researching?
Using modern synthetic chemistry methods we are synthesising new chemical entities for pharmaceutical drug discovery and development.
In some cases we are using plants derived natural products as our starting materials.
In collaboration with scientists in Thailand we are isolating natural products (alkaloids) from the roots of the many Stemona species of plants found in Thailand.
The extracts of these roots have been used in traditional medicine for the treatment of the symptoms of bronchitis and asthma, as well as for pesticides in agricultural applications.
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Roots of Stemona tuberosa for sale in Chiang Mai Thailand
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Why is it important?
There is a pressing need worldwide to find new drugs with antibacterial, antiviral (for the treatment of HIV aids or bird flu) and anticancer activities and for the treatment of diseases involving the central nervous system. This is particularly important because of the increased occurrence of strains of bacteria and viruses that are now resistant to current pharmaceutical drugs.
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Stemocurtisine, the first pyrido[1,2-a]azepine Stemona alkaloid to be isolated.
This molecule was first isolated in our laboratory in 2003.
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What are your latest achievements?
We have synthesised several natural products (aza sugar alkaloids, e.g. swainsonine, uniflorine A and castanospermine) and their structural analogues that have potential antiviral and anticancer activities or could also be used as antidiabetic or anti obesity therapies.
Using several plant derived natural products we have synthesised many new chemical entities and found potent and selective activities on a number of important biological targets.
We plan to develop these new compounds further into potential new pharmaceutical drugs through our collaborations with Johnson and Johnson Research Pty Limited in Sydney.
In collaboration with scientists at Chiang Mai University in Thailand we have discovered 12 new Stemona alkaloids and we are currently studying their biological activities as potential biopesticides.
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Castanospermum australe (Black bean) the beans contains the alkaloid castanospermine that has anticancer and antiviral properties
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Who funds your work?
The Australian Research Council funds our synthetic chemistry work while Johnson and Johnson Research (JJR) Pty Limited in Sydney supports the newly established JJR Pharmaceutical Research Laboratory that was established in October 2004 for new pharmaceutical drug discovery. This laboratory involves Professor Stephen G. Pyne (Director), Dr. Alison Ung (Research Manager) and six other staff.
The drug synthesis and natural products team (from left to right): Dr Alison Ung; Andrew Davis; Dr Nageshwar Yepuri; Therapan Machan ; Qinyong Mao; Leena Burgess; Prof. Stephen Pyne; Thunwadee Ritthiwigrom; Dr Uta Batenburg-Nyguyen; Kanlaya Jumpatong; Dr Pitchaya Mungkornasawkul; Arife Yazici; Morwenna Williams; Dr Minyan Tang and Sarah Yong
Who do you collaborate with?
Dr. Wayne Gerlach, Johnson and Johnson Research Pty Limited in Sydney; Dr. Bill Murray, Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Discovery, USA; Dr. Phil Larkin, CSIRO Plant Industry (Canberra) and Assoc. Prof. Araya Jatisineur, Chiang Mai University, Thailand.
What's the most memorable event to happen over the last three years?
Opening of the new Johnson and Johnson Research Laboratories has been a great boost to our research effort
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Opening of the Johnson and Johnson Research Pharmaceutical Research Laboratory in July 2005
(from left to right): Prof. Margaret Sheil (DVC (Research)); Dr Alison Ung (Research Manager); Dr Susan Pond (CEO of JJR PTY Ltd); Prof. Stephen Pyne (Director); Prof. Gerald Sutton (VC) and Dr Wayne Gerlach (Director JJR PTY Ltd).
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Contact details
Professor Stephen Pyne: spyne@uow.edu.au
Dr Alison Ung: aung@uow.edu.au
Want to know more? - Weblinks
Professor Stephen Pyne Homepage
Department of Chemistry Research Interests
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