Stephen graduated with an MSci in Chemistry from Queens University Belfast in 2010. He then moved to the University of Alberta in Canada to undertake a PhD in organic chemistry with Professor John Vederas. His research focused on structural and mechanistic studies on antimicrobial lipopeptides, namely the tridecaptins, which show strong activity against multidrug resistant Gram-ngeative bacteria. Through his graduate studies he developed expertise in the synthesis of amino acids and peptides, natural product isolation, antimicrobial testing, biochemical and biophysical assays using bacteria, and the determination of the solution-structure of peptides by NMR. In February 2016 he was awarded a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship to study the transport of lipid-linked carbohydrates across bacterial cell membranes. This work will be carried out in collaboration with the Davis group here at Oxford, as well as with Professor Jim Naismith at the University of St. Andrews.

Last updated: 07-04-16