Professor of organic chemistry at the University of Aberdeen. Research in the Jaspars group focuses on the functions and applications of natural products, particularly those from marine invertebrates. The goal of the work is to determine the biological role of selected natural products as well as using others as pharmaceuticals, tools for biomedical research, fluorosensors and catalysts. The main themes of his research are the functions and applications of natural products, particularly those from marine organisms. This encompasses two broad areas, the use of marine natural products as potential pharmaceuticals and tools for biomedical research and the interactions of these metabolites with transition metals. Speculation as to the true function of these metabolites in their biological sphere is key to making advances in both these research areas. The core techniques involved in this work are in the separation and structure determination of natural products. Work in the group involves organic synthesis where compound is needed for further biological testing or to determine its ecological/biological function. Work with molecular biologists is aimed at accessing the natural products through expressing their biosynthetic genes in heterologous hosts. Theoretical methods are used where these will lead to further insight into the biological or catalytic activity of the natural products or their complexes.
Dr. Bob Lauder
Lecturer in Biochemistry at the University of Lanacaster.
He has extensive glycobiolopgy expertise through his research concerned with the structure and function of proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans.
Prof. Gerard Nash
Professor of Cardiovascular Rheology in the Division of Medical Sciences in the Medical School at the University of Birmingham. Past-president of the International Society for Biorheolgy. Expert in the mechanical properties of blood cells which affect their circulation, and in modelling the processes which influence the recruitment of leukocytes from the circulation into tissue. Main research interest in the regulation of protective vascular inflammatory responses by the local physico-chemical environment, and how disruption of this finely tuned response leads to pathology.
