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Monash research addresses national issues and global needs. It also improves lives in the communities we serve. If you want to challenge yourself - and do it on a global stage - then Monash could be the place for you.
To attract excellent people we know we need to offer excellent benefits and conditions. That's why when you join Monash, you'll join a workplace where fairness and flexibility are standards, not afterthoughts. We offer a variety of professional development opportunities, support for research, generous maternity/parental leave and work arrangements that acknowledge one size doesn't fit all.
The Opportunity
Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) is one of Australia's top ranked institutes undertaking research into the biological basis of disease and the design of novel medicinal agents. MIPS is a vibrant and rapidly growing facility, which has tripled its research funding in the last three years. It brings together a unique and diverse cross-section of researchers with a breadth of expertise and affords access to a range of high tech facilities.
The group, headed by Associate Professor Bernard Flynn, is seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Researcher to work on an ARC funded project to design more effective methods for synthetically addressing complex organic molecules, containing multiple stereocentres.
While natural products and natural product inspired drugs have come to represent a significant component of the current pharmacopeia, current trends in drug discovery have been towards non-natural, synthetic agents. This has arisen by virtue of the necessity to increase the size of screening sets beyond available natural-product extracts and to improve the efficiency with which early lead compounds are progressed towards effective drugs. Such lead generation and optimisation efforts require highly efficient syntheses and, accordingly, complex architectures containing multiple stereocentres are avoided. However, this stands in stark contrast to nature's evolvement of small molecule modulators of biological function, which strongly favours polycyclic scaffolds containing multiple stereocentres.
This bias towards such structures can be understood in terms of their high "ligand efficiency", where they exhibit a high number of protein-ligand binding interactions as a function of molecular weight. Ironcially, ligand efficiency is also becoming increasingly acknowledged as a key parameter in lead optimisation, as small increases in molecular weight can often produce significant reductions in pharmacokinetic performance of drug leads. Reconciling the opposing requirements of "synthetic tractability" and "ligand efficiency" so as to accommodate a broader range of more effectual leads, including natural products, is a key objective within Flynn's research group.
In the current project, new organic and transition metal catalysts will be designed and applied to the concise, efficient synthesis of some specific natural products for use as leads in drug discovery programs.
If you have a PhD in a related field of organic synthesis and a strong theoretical and practical knowledge of synthetic organic chemistry, we welcome the submission of your application.
Previous applicants need not re-apply.
Your application must address the selection criteria. Please refer to "How to apply for Monash Jobs".
Enquiries
Associate Professor Bernard Flynn, +61 3 9902 9332
To attract excellent people we know we need to offer excellent benefits and conditions. That's why when you join Monash, you'll join a workplace where fairness and flexibility are standards, not afterthoughts. We offer a variety of professional development opportunities, support for research, generous maternity/parental leave and work arrangements that acknowledge one size doesn't fit all.
The Opportunity
Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) is one of Australia's top ranked institutes undertaking research into the biological basis of disease and the design of novel medicinal agents. MIPS is a vibrant and rapidly growing facility, which has tripled its research funding in the last three years. It brings together a unique and diverse cross-section of researchers with a breadth of expertise and affords access to a range of high tech facilities.
The group, headed by Associate Professor Bernard Flynn, is seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Researcher to work on an ARC funded project to design more effective methods for synthetically addressing complex organic molecules, containing multiple stereocentres.
While natural products and natural product inspired drugs have come to represent a significant component of the current pharmacopeia, current trends in drug discovery have been towards non-natural, synthetic agents. This has arisen by virtue of the necessity to increase the size of screening sets beyond available natural-product extracts and to improve the efficiency with which early lead compounds are progressed towards effective drugs. Such lead generation and optimisation efforts require highly efficient syntheses and, accordingly, complex architectures containing multiple stereocentres are avoided. However, this stands in stark contrast to nature's evolvement of small molecule modulators of biological function, which strongly favours polycyclic scaffolds containing multiple stereocentres.
This bias towards such structures can be understood in terms of their high "ligand efficiency", where they exhibit a high number of protein-ligand binding interactions as a function of molecular weight. Ironcially, ligand efficiency is also becoming increasingly acknowledged as a key parameter in lead optimisation, as small increases in molecular weight can often produce significant reductions in pharmacokinetic performance of drug leads. Reconciling the opposing requirements of "synthetic tractability" and "ligand efficiency" so as to accommodate a broader range of more effectual leads, including natural products, is a key objective within Flynn's research group.
In the current project, new organic and transition metal catalysts will be designed and applied to the concise, efficient synthesis of some specific natural products for use as leads in drug discovery programs.
If you have a PhD in a related field of organic synthesis and a strong theoretical and practical knowledge of synthetic organic chemistry, we welcome the submission of your application.
Previous applicants need not re-apply.
Your application must address the selection criteria. Please refer to "How to apply for Monash Jobs".
Enquiries
Associate Professor Bernard Flynn, +61 3 9902 9332
| Salary: | $74,032 - $79,469 pa Level A PhD - (includes 9% employer superannuation) |
| Location: | Parkville campus |
| Job No: | 498442 |
| Work Type: | Full-time - 12 month fixed-term appointment |
| Closing Date: | Saturday 31 December 2011, 11:55pm Aus. Eastern Daylight Time |
| Attachments: | - How to apply for Monash Jobs |
| - PD - Research Fellow |
