Professor Steve Ley CBE FRS FMedSci

Director of Research

In the Ley Group, we specialise in developing new synthesis methods and applying them to the construction of biologically important molecules. Over the years we have completed the total synthesis of many natural products, including: spongistatin 1 (anti-mitotic agent); rapamycin (immunosuppressant); thapsigargin (SERCA pumps inhibitor); azadirachtin (insect antifeedant); and bengazole A (fungicide). In addition to our research on natural product synthesis, we also pioneered flow chemistry and machine assisted synthesis.

For more detailed research information and our publication list, please see our legacy group website.

Completed Natural Products

Publications

Fully automated sequence-specific synthesis of α-peptides using flow chemistry

KR Knudsen, M Ladlow, Z Bandpey, SV Ley

Journal of Flow Chemistry

(2014)

(doi: 10.1556/jfc-d-13-00033)

Highly regioselective lithiation of pyridines bearing an oxetane unit by n -butyllithium

G Rouquet, DC Blakemore, SV Ley

Chem. Commun.

(2014)

8908

(doi: 10.1039/c4cc03766a)

Machine-assisted synthesis of modulators of the histone reader BRD9 using flow methods of chemistry and frontal affinity chromatography

L Guetzoyan, RJ Ingham, N Nikbin, J Rossignol, M Wolling, M Baumert, NA Burgess-Brown, CM Strain-Damerell, L Shrestha, PE Brennan, O Fedorov, S Knapp, SV Ley

Medchemcomm

(2014)

540

(doi: 10.1039/c4md00007b)

Metal-free coupling of saturated heterocyclic sulfonylhydrazones with boronic acids.

DM Allwood, DC Blakemore, AD Brown, SV Ley

The Journal of organic chemistry

(2013)

328

(doi: 10.1021/jo402526z)

Fragment-based hit identification: Thinking in 3D

AD Morley, A Pugliese, K Birchall, J Bower, P Brennan, N Brown, T Chapman, M Drysdale, IH Gilbert, S Hoelder, A Jordan, SV Ley, A Merritt, D Miller, ME Swarbrick, PG Wyatt

Drug Discovery Today

(2013)

1221

(doi: 10.1016/j.drudis.2013.07.011)

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of a novel allosteric inhibitor of HSET that damages cancer cells with supernumerary centrosomes.

CA Watts, FM Richards, A Bender, PJ Bond, O Korb, O Kern, M Riddick, P Owen, RM Myers, J Raff, F Gergely, DI Jodrell, SV Ley

Molecular Cancer Therapeutics

(2013)

B96

(doi: 10.1158/1535-7163.TARG-13-B96)

An overview of the synthetic routes to the best selling drugs containing 6-membered heterocycles

M Baumann, IR Baxendale