Teams
Ferrier consists of six scientific teams. Learn more about each team's focus.
These teams broadly focus on the areas described below however we have a flexible matrix structure where projects are resouced from across the institute based on available time and capability needs.
Analytical and applied chemistry
Custom synthesis, and process development. Natural product isolation and identification. Runs NMR facility, GlycoFineChem and builds bespoke equipment and software.
Synthetic chemistry
Synthesis of novel nucleoside based antivirals and antibacterials and bile acid derivatives.
Natural products
Isolation, characterization, and modification of complex polysaccharides in human health, and their modification to make new biopolymers for use as commodities.
Carbohydrate chemistry
Rare disorder research focusing on lysosomal storage disorders. Design and synthesis of potent enzyme inhibitors via enzyme/substrate transition state analysis.
mRNA and lipid nanoparticles
Design and synthesis of vaccine adjuvants and ionisable lipids and subsequent use in vaccines and immunotherapeutics.
Synthetic and chemical biology
Using natural biosynthetic machinery to generate valuable products, and computation and experiment to study molecular details of protein communication networks.