Organisation:
Department:
Interests:
My research has a strong focus on organo-fluorine chemistry, and particularly organo-fluorine chemistry focused on bioorganic and chemical biology research. We are interested in the influence of the fluorine atom on the conformation and behaviour of biomolecules. We also have a strong interest in enzymatic fluorination (the fluorinase) and how that can be applied to biotechnological solutions, through molecular biology, towards the production of organisms that can produce organo-fluorine compounds by fermentation (eg. antibiotics). We have a strong interest in synthetic organic chemistry and we are focussing on the synthesis of new motifs in organo-fluorine chemistry which can be used in a variety of performance molecules.
Research Themes:
Organic Fluorine chemistry, New tracers with Fluorine-18 for PET, Bioorganic chemistry
Key Publications:
M. Winkler, J. Domarkas, L. F. Schweiger, D. O’Hagan Fluorinase coupled enzymatic base swaps generate 5′-deoxy-5′-fluoronucleosides from fluoride ion: Synthesis of [18F]-5′-deoxy-5′-fluorouridines Angew. Chemie. Int. Ed., 2008, 47, 10141 – 10143.
M. Onega, J. Domarkas, H. Deng, L. F. Schweiger, T. A. D. Smith, A. E. Welch, C. Plisson, A. D. Gee, D. O’Hagan. An enzymatic route to 5-deoxy-5-[18F]-fluoro-D-ribose, a [18F]-fluorinated sugar for PET imaging. Chem. Commun., 2010, 139 – 141.
M.Onega, M.Winkler, D. O’Hagan The fluorinase: A tool for the synthesis of fluorine-18 labelled sugars and nucleosides for positron emission tomography, Future. Med. Chem., 2009, 1, 865 – 873
Collaborators:
John Mallard PET Centre, Aberdeen University Scotland
GSK PET Centre, Hammersmith Hospital, London United Kingdom