Dr John Spencer
John Spencer BSc PhD CChem FRSC
Reader in Medicinal Chemistry
Office: Grenville 228
Email: j.spencer@gre.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)20 8331 8215
Fax: +44 (0)20 8331 9805
Areas of Expertise
Dr Spencer is a graduate of Sussex University and did his PhD studies in palladium chemistry at the Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg before carrying out postdoctoral studies at the ETH, Zurich. He has 10 years’ experience working as a medicinal chemist in small biotech and research organisations (e.g. James Black Foundation, 2001-2006). He has been a Reader at Greenwich since 2006 and his research interests include palladium catalysis, microwave mediated synthesis and general medicinal chemistry.
Research
Drug discovery is a costly exercise with a high attrition rate. Our research focuses on improving reactions that are important to medicinal chemistry e.g. accelerating reactions or simplifying purification processes such that many molecules (a “library”) can be synthesised over a shorter period of time. “Atom economical” reactions, where fewer synthetic steps are required, are being employed to modify biologically relevant molecules.
A number of these projects are in conjunction with Greenwich colleagues as well as external groups including Strathclyde University, Porto Alegre University (Brazil), ULP Strasbourg (France), Ecole Nat. Sup., Paris (France) and we have received funding from Novartis, BP, Avexa and the Royal Society of Chemistry. X-ray crystallography also plays a fundamental role in our structural studies and we collaborate extensively with Southampton University (EPSRC unit) and the Structural Genome Consortium (Oxford).
Recent projects
- Synthesis & catalytic evaluation of palladacycles. Heck, Suzuki and C-H activations.
- Bioactive metal containing anticancer agents.
- Microwave assisted organic synthesis.
- Solid state studies of medicinally important molecules.
- Library generation using parallel synthesis.
- Cocrystal structures of biological probes in proteins.
Selected Recent Publications
John Spencer, Andrew P. Mendham, Arun K. Kotha, Simon C. W. Richardson, Elizabeth A. Hillard, Gerard Jaouen, Louise Male and Michael B. Hursthouse Structural and biological investigation of ferrocene-substituted 3-methylidene-1,3-dihydro-2H-indol-2-ones, Dalton Trans., 2009, 918–921.[pdf download].
Spencer, J., Patel, H.,Rathnam, R.P., Nazira, A. (2008) Microwave mediated reduction of heterocycle and fluorine containing nitroaromatics with Mo(CO)6 & DBU, Tetrahedron, 64, 10195. [pdf download].
Spencer, J., Chowdhry, B.Z., Mallett, A.I.,Rahman, R.P.,Adatia, T.,Bashall, A.,Rominger, F. (2008) C-H activations on a 1H- 1,4-benzodiazepin-2(3H)-one template. Tetrahedron, 64, 6082. [pdf download].
Spencer, J., McDonald, I.M., Gaffen, J., Griffin, E., Harper, E.A., Linney, I.D., Roberts, S.P., Shaxted, M.E., Bashall, A., Adatia, T. (2008) Achiral, selective CCK2 receptor antagonists based on a 1,3,5-benzotriazepine-2,4-dione template. Bioorg. Med. Chem., 16, 2974.
Low, C.M.R., McDonald, I. M., Pether, M.J., Spencer, J., Tisselli, P., Wright, P.T. Pyrimidine Derivatives: Patent WO 2008 009963, James Black Foundation.
McDonald, I.M. et al. (2007) Discovery and characterization of novel, potent, non-peptide parathyroid hormone-1 receptor antagonists. J. Med. Chem. 50, 4789.
McDonald, I.M., Black, J.W. et al. (2007) Optimisation of 1,3,4-benzotriazepine-based CCK2 antagonists to obtain potent, orally-active inhibitors of gastrin-mediated gastric acid secretion. J. Med. Chem. 50, 3101.
Spencer, J., Nazira, A., Patel, H., Rathnam, R.P., Verma, J. (2007) Molybdenum hexacarbonyl & DBU reduction of nitro compounds under microwave irradiation. Synlett, 2557.
Highlighted Research
- http://www.organic-chemistry.org/Highlights/2007/15OctoberB.shtm
- http://in-cites.com/papers/Spencer_Dupont.html
Course Participation
| CHEM1040 | Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient Drug Design |
| CHEM1043 | Advanced Organic Chemistry |
| CHEM0021 | Medicinal Chemistry and Therapeutics |