People

Dr. Luke Brennan

Principal Investigator

Dr Luke E. Brennan is an organic and medicinal chemist specialising in the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of functional small molecules. His research operates at the interface of synthetic chemistry, medicinal chemistry and chemical biology, with particular expertise in antimicrobial discovery, bioconjugation, metal-based therapeutics and chemical probe development.

His expertise support's MiCRA and industry partners from initial molecular design and custom synthesis through assay development, biological evaluation and mechanistic characterisation.

Core Expertise

Synthetic & Medicinal Chemistry

Multi-step organic synthesis • Heterocyclic chemistry • Medicinal chemistry • SAR and lead optimisation • Reaction optimisation • Custom synthesis • Synthetic route development • Peptide conjugates • Functionalisation of pharmaceutical scaffolds

Chemical Biology & Bioconjugation

Cysteine-selective and bioorthogonal chemistry • Protein and peptide modification • Covalent reactive-group design • Chemical probes • Activity/Affinity-based protein profiling • Chemoproteomics • Proximity-labelling strategies

Antimicrobial Discovery

Antibacterial compound development • MIC/MBC assays • Resistant bacteria • Mechanism-of-action studies • Bacterial uptake studies • Siderophore and peptide targeting • Photodynamic antimicrobial therapy

Metal-Based & Photochemical Technologies

Metal-based therapeutics • Au(I), Ru(II), Ir(III) and Ga(III) coordination chemistry • Photoredox chemistry • Photosensitisers • Photoinduced electron transfer • Light-activated antimicrobial technologies

Analytical & Mechanistic Chemistry

NMR • LC-MS/HRMS • HPLC/UPLC • UV-Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy • Reaction kinetics • Plate-based assays • Proteomics/chemoproteomics • Stability and mechanistic studies

Opportunities for Industry Collaboration

Expertise applied to MiCRA-supported projects involving:

· Custom synthesis of compounds, intermediates, reference materials and molecular probes

· Medicinal chemistry and optimisation of biologically active compounds

· Development and evaluation of new antimicrobial technologies

· Bioconjugation and functionalisation of peptides, proteins and biomolecules

· Design of molecular recognition elements, chemical probes and diagnostic reagents; target/mechanism-of-action studies

· Assay development and mechanistic investigation of chemical and biological systems

· Development of photochemical, photocatalytic and light-activated technologies

· Analytical troubleshooting, reaction optimisation and proof-of-concept feasibility studies