Professor David O'Hagan was born in Glasgow and studied chemistry at the University of Glasgow (1982). He carried out a Ph.D (1985) in polyketide antibiotic biosynthesis at the University of Southampton with Professor John A Robinson and then he spent a postdoctoral year at the Ohio State University with Professor Heinz G. Floss, investigating peptide antibiotic biosynthesis. In 1986 he was appointed to the University of Durham where he continued to explore natural product biosynthesis but also developed a strong interest in organo-fluorine chemistry. He remained at Durham until 2000 before moving to his current position as Professor and Head of Organic Chemistry at the University of St Andrews. His research interests extend from the synthesis and properties of organo-fluorine compounds, fluorination enzymology, fluorine-18 chemistry for positron emission tomography (PET) and through to fluorinated organic materials.

He was a founding member and a past Chair of the RSC Fluorine Group.  He was awarded the IChemE, 'Judges Award' for fluorinase enzyme isolation in 2002, was elected FRSE in 2004, was awarded the RSC Malcolm Campbell Memorial Prize in Medicinal Chemistry in 2005, was a recipient of the RSC Tilden Medal in 2006/2007, was the RSC 'Natural Product Reports Award' Lecturer in 2009, was awarded the American Chemical Society (ACS) Award for 'Creative Work in Fluorine Chemistry' in 2012, was awarded a Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award in 2013 and was awarded the RSC Organic Stereochemistry award in 2015.

In 2018 David was awarded the Moissan Prize, which is awarded every three years by the Fondation de la Maison de la Chime in Paris for contributions to fluorine chemistry.

Group web pages

chemistry.st-andrews.ac.uk/staff/doh/group/

Research Philosophy

Our projects are generally on the organic chemistry/biochemistry interface. We are interested in novel enzymes, enzyme mechaism, tracing biosynthesis pathways and identifying novel enzyme activities in secondary metabolism. These interests inevitably take us towards designing novel substrates for enzymes (biotransformations) and inhibiting enzymes (medicinal chemistry). We are interested too in using organo-fluorine compounds in the design and execution of these objectives.

Organo-fluorine chemistry

The fluorine atom is a small and compacted atom and sterically it sits between H and O. F can often replace H or O in an enzyme substrate without a significant change in the shape, and it is often recognised by the target enzyme. However fluorine is the most electronegative element and as a consequence the introduction of the C-F bond can dramatically change the electronic profile of an analogue relative to the natural substrate. We are interested in the particular influence that the C-F bond can have in given situations. For example C-F bonds are particularly susceptible to stereoelectronic effects. They like to orientate very specifically relative to C=O and C-N bonds, and thus influence the conformation of bio-molecules such as peptides. Thus fluorine can be used as a design tool in tuning molecules for particular purposes. This leads us into medicinal chemistry where we are designing specific drug targets.

Natural product biosynthesis

We are interested in the biosynthesis of a range of natural products, but particularly the rare naturally ocurring fluorine containing compounds (fluoroacetate and 4-fluorothreonine) from the bacterium S. cattleya, the tropane alkaloids from D. stramonium plants and tenellin from a B. bassiana fungus. These projects involve the synthesis of isotopically labelled compounds as well as novel enzyme purification.

These projects also lead us towards designing inhibitors of pathways specific to bacteria in order to generate novel antibiotics.

Professor David O'Hagan was born in Glasgow and studied chemistry at the University of Glasgow (1982). He carried out a Ph.D (1985) in polyketide antibiotic biosynthesis at the University of Southampton with Professor John A Robinson and then he spent a postdoctoral year at the Ohio State University with Professor Heinz G. Floss, investigating peptide antibiotic biosynthesis. In 1986 he was appointed to the University of Durham where he continued to explore natural product biosynthesis but also developed a strong interest in organo-fluorine chemistry. He remained at Durham until 2000 before moving to his current position as Professor and Head of Organic Chemistry at the University of St Andrews. His research interests extend from the synthesis and properties of organo-fluorine compounds, fluorination enzymology, fluorine-18 chemistry for positron emission tomography (PET) and through to fluorinated organic materials.

He was a founding member and a past Chair of the RSC Fluorine Group.  He was awarded the IChemE, 'Judges Award' for fluorinase enzyme isolation in 2002, was elected FRSE in 2004, was awarded the RSC Malcolm Campbell Memorial Prize in Medicinal Chemistry in 2005, was a recipient of the RSC Tilden Medal in 2006/2007, was the RSC 'Natural Product Reports Award' Lecturer in 2009, was awarded the American Chemical Society (ACS) Award for 'Creative Work in Fluorine Chemistry' in 2012, was awarded a Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award in 2013 and was awarded the RSC Organic Stereochemistry award in 2015.

In 2018 David was awarded the Moissan Prize, which is awarded every three years by the Fondation de la Maison de la Chime in Paris for contributions to fluorine chemistry.

Organic synthesis is the key skill in the research group. Often the projects require the synthesis of selectively fluorinated or specifically isotopically labelled compounds for biological evaluation. In some projects protein purification and the development of enzyme assays is required. NMR is a key analytical tool and all members of the research groups become proficient with NMR. We also use HPLC and GC-MS on a routine basis.

Professor David O'Hagan was born in Glasgow and studied chemistry at the University of Glasgow (1982). He carried out a Ph.D (1985) in polyketide antibiotic biosynthesis at the University of Southampton with Professor John A Robinson and then he spent a postdoctoral year at the Ohio State University with Professor Heinz G. Floss, investigating peptide antibiotic biosynthesis. In 1986 he was appointed to the University of Durham where he continued to explore natural product biosynthesis but also developed a strong interest in organo-fluorine chemistry. He remained at Durham until 2000 before moving to his current position as Professor and Head of Organic Chemistry at the University of St Andrews. His research interests extend from the synthesis and properties of organo-fluorine compounds, fluorination enzymology, fluorine-18 chemistry for positron emission tomography (PET) and through to fluorinated organic materials.

He was a founding member and a past Chair of the RSC Fluorine Group.  He was awarded the IChemE, 'Judges Award' for fluorinase enzyme isolation in 2002, was elected FRSE in 2004, was awarded the RSC Malcolm Campbell Memorial Prize in Medicinal Chemistry in 2005, was a recipient of the RSC Tilden Medal in 2006/2007, was the RSC 'Natural Product Reports Award' Lecturer in 2009, was awarded the American Chemical Society (ACS) Award for 'Creative Work in Fluorine Chemistry' in 2012, was awarded a Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award in 2013 and was awarded the RSC Organic Stereochemistry award in 2015.

In 2018 David was awarded the Moissan Prize, which is awarded every three years by the Fondation de la Maison de la Chime in Paris for contributions to fluorine chemistry.

Professor David O'Hagan was born in Glasgow and studied chemistry at the University of Glasgow (1982). He carried out a Ph.D (1985) in polyketide antibiotic biosynthesis at the University of Southampton with Professor John A Robinson and then he spent a postdoctoral year at the Ohio State University with Professor Heinz G. Floss, investigating peptide antibiotic biosynthesis. In 1986 he was appointed to the University of Durham where he continued to explore natural product biosynthesis but also developed a strong interest in organo-fluorine chemistry. He remained at Durham until 2000 before moving to his current position as Professor and Head of Organic Chemistry at the University of St Andrews. His research interests extend from the synthesis and properties of organo-fluorine compounds, fluorination enzymology, fluorine-18 chemistry for positron emission tomography (PET) and through to fluorinated organic materials.

He was a founding member and a past Chair of the RSC Fluorine Group.  He was awarded the IChemE, 'Judges Award' for fluorinase enzyme isolation in 2002, was elected FRSE in 2004, was awarded the RSC Malcolm Campbell Memorial Prize in Medicinal Chemistry in 2005, was a recipient of the RSC Tilden Medal in 2006/2007, was the RSC 'Natural Product Reports Award' Lecturer in 2009, was awarded the American Chemical Society (ACS) Award for 'Creative Work in Fluorine Chemistry' in 2012, was awarded a Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award in 2013 and was awarded the RSC Organic Stereochemistry award in 2015.

In 2018 David was awarded the Moissan Prize, which is awarded every three years by the Fondation de la Maison de la Chime in Paris for contributions to fluorine chemistry.