Dr Damian Laird

Room: PhSc/2.016

Research

Chemicals from natural sources have been used for millennia as traditional medicines, for painting ceremonial designs, as poisons, and to dye fabrics.  Today, natural products chemists are still involved in isolating and identifying novel compounds from plants, animals and microbes but are also using their skills and knowledge at the cutting edge in fields as diverse as biotechnology, ecology, environmental science, materials science, forensics, medicinal chemistry, and instrument design.

The marine environment provides a unique opportunity for natural products chemists.  Marine ecosystems are still largely unexplored and, as such, are a relatively untapped resource.  In particular, the vast coastline of Western Australia, with its myriad ecological niches, from tropical to temperate, mangrove to abyssal canyons, holds much promise for new and exciting chemical discoveries in areas such as:

• Using compounds to taxonomically in order to determine evolutionary images and/or differentiate between identify native and introduced invasive species
• Using compounds to taxonomically in order to determine evolutionary images and/or differentiate between identify native and introduced invasive species
• Determining the ecological role that compounds play and how those interactions structure the surrounding community
• Discovery of novel microbes or enzyme systems that could revolutionise chemical synthesis and materials science.

By undertaking an Honours project in natural products chemistry you can develop interests in chemical separations, strucuture elucidation, taxononomy, ecology, and chemical synthesis.

Back to Honours Projects