Thomas Clough

Background

About Thomas Clough

Synthetic chemistry is something I greatly enjoy and have put to great use in my current role as a posdoctoral fellow at the ICR. My project involves the design and synthesis of compounds which are tested as part of the drug discovery process, with a principal focus on carboxylic acid isosteres. In addition to putting my extensive practical chemistry experience into use, I am also responsible for data processing and a small degree of cheminformatics and have enjoyed becoming more involved with mentoring of PhD students. My PhD project was on ligands for ions which could form imaging probes targeted to pancreatic beta cells. This involved the design of protein-specific ligand molecules, their complexation to a range of metal centres and analysis, both in vitro and in vivo, of the properties of these probes. Additionally, I worked on the synthesis of many different visible and near-infrared emitting fluorophores to aid in the optical imaging of these cells. Several of these probes were designed to be sensitive to their environment, which required the design of pH sensitive compounds and the development of FRET donor-acceptor systems with complexes. Previously, I completed a 6 month placement at the University of British Columbia working on chelating ligands which bind to radiometals and have applications in the field of medicinal inorganic chemistry. My undergraduate research project dealt with the synthesis of fluorinated proline analogues and the impact this had on thier conformations.