Pharmacology and Chemical Biology

Our research is multidisciplinary investigating biological systems in health and disease models. Our expertise spans structural biology, analytical and chemical biology, spectroscopy, nanoscience, microbiology, human cell biology, pharmacology and drug discovery. Together we are addressing emerging challenges in diverse areas, including infectious diseases, inflammation and cancer.   

We are specialists in a range of techniques including mass spectrometry, NMR spectroscopy, circular dichroism, bioimaging and bioassays, electrophysiology, molecular microbiology and 2D/3D models of infection and cancer.  Our work is supported by state-of-the-art equipment either within our laboratories or managed by the Faculty of Science Platforms.   

Our research includes 

• Applied spectroscopic techniques to understand molecular aspects of host-microbe interactions and receptor-drug interactions

• Application of novel nanomaterials for the development of biosensors and diagnostic tools for the early detection of cellular dysfunction and disease biomarkers.

• Application of biophysical techniques to understand fundamental mechanisms in metal ion metabolism and metallocofactor function

• Exploring fundamental microbiological processes to overcome anti-microbial resistance including the development of novel anti-fungal agents focusing on targeting DNA structures such as G-quadruplexes

• Understanding the mechanisms of inflammation (with a focus on macrophage and microglial biology) and harnessing natural products and synthetic molecules as novel therapeutics

• Investigating cancer cell signalling pathways that drive chemoresistance utilising nanomaterials as novel targeted treatments

Members

• Dr Leanne Stokes (lead) Purinergic ion channels, inflammation, on-cell NMR spectroscopy for pharmacology

• Dr Stefan Bidula Anti-fungal drug development, G-quadruplex DNA, inflammation

• Dr Tharin Blumenschein Protein structure and dynamics, intrinsically disordered proteins, NMR spectroscopy

• Dr Myles Cheesman Magnetic circular dichroism of hemoproteins

• Dr Emily Hobson Inflammation, cancer biology, chemokine receptor signalling

• Professor Nick le Brun Mechanistic studies of metallo-biochemistry, engineering biology for recovery of metals

• Dr Maria Marin Developing and applying nanomaterials to biosensing, diagnostics and drug delivery

• Professor Anja Mueller Chemokine receptor signalling, cancer cell migration, metastasis

• Professor Maria O’Connell Inflammation, Nrf2, nutraceuticals, cancer biology

• Dr Julie Sanderson Retinal biology, neuroinflammation, purinergic receptors

• Dr Anastasia Sobolewski Gut immunology, cancer biology, tunnelling nanotubes

• Dr Sean Tattan Tissue engineering, bioinformatics, cancer cell biology  

Selected publications

1. Biosynthesis and bioactivity of anti-inflammatory triterpenoids in Calendula officinalis. Golubova, D., Salmon, M., Su, H., Tansley, C., Kaithakottil, G. G., Linsmith, G., Schudoma, C., Swarbreck, D., O'Connell, M. A. & Patron, N. J. Nature Communications 2025 16:6941.

2. On-cell saturation transfer difference NMR spectroscopy on ion channels: characterizing negative allosteric modulator binding interactions of P2X7. S. Monaco, J Browne, M Wallace, J Angulo, L Stokes. JACS 147,36,32400-11 (2025)

3. Human mitochondrial ferritin exhibits highly unusual iron-O₂ chemistry distinct from that of cytosolic ferritins. J. M. Bradley, Z. Bugg, J. Pullin, G. R. Moore, D. A. Svistunenko, and N. E. Le Brun. Nat. Commun., 16, 4695 (2025).

4. Dynamics in the Phytophthora capsica effector AVR3a11 confirm the core WY domain fold. J. Tolchard, V.S. Chambers, L.S. Boutemy, M. J. Banfield, T.M.A. Blumenschein. Biochemistry 64, 5, 1146-56 (2025)

5. Modulation of Nrf2 expression by targeting i-motif DNA. E Warner, D Guneri, M.A.O’Connell, C.J. MacDonald, Z.A.E. Waller.  Communications Chemistry 8:5 (2025)

6. Bilayer-coating strategy for hydrophobic nanoparticles providing colloidal stability, functionality, and surface protection in biological media A. Schroter, C Arnau del Valle, Maria Marin, T Hirsch. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 62, e2023051 (2023)

7. HGF/c-Met/β1-integrin signalling axis induces tunneling nanotubes in A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells. Griselda Awanis, Salonee Banerjee, Robert Johnson, Sathuwarman Raveenthiraraj, Aya Elmeligy, Derek Warren, Jelena Gavrilovic, Anastasia Sobolewski. Life Science Alliance. 6, 10, e202301953 (2023).

8. Evidence that G-quadruplexes form in pathogenic fungi and represent promising antifungal targets Middleton, G, Mahamud, FO, Storer, ISR, Williams-Gunn, A, Wostear, F, Abdolrasouli, A, Barclay, E, Bradford, A, Steward, O, Schelenz, S, McColl, J, Lézé, B, van Rhijn, N, da Silva Dantas, A, Furukawa, T, Warren, D, Waller, ZAE & Bidula, S 2025, EMBO Molecular Medicine.