**HFSP Postdoctoral fellowships**

If you have just finished, or are nearing completion of your PhD in either chemistry or biology, and fancy postdoctoral studies in our lab in Dunedin, New Zealand, please get in touch with Nick. 3-year postdoctoral fellowships are available (information at the link below), and we can work together to develop your application. Fellowships will commence in 2025, and the application begins with a relatively short letter of intent, which is due before May 14, 2025.

Postdoctoral Fellowship information

Welcome

The Green Chemistry Group is up and running!

We are an organic and biological chemistry group at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. We perform synthetic and analytical chemistry aimed at better understanding the origin of molecules like nucleic acids and peptides, how life emerged from these molecules, and how they may be synthesised and redesigned as biological and medicinal tools and probes.

Group photo Sep 2023, bowling. No bowling alleys were permanently harmed in this outing, just egos. Photo: Anya Weth.
Group photo April 2023, in front of University of Otago’s iconic clocktower (Sasha didn’t get the maroon memo). Photo: Anya Weth.

Recent Youtube Talks

If you are interested in seeing some of our work presented, check out the following recent Youtube videos (23-6-2023).

Short talk (25 min) and discussion on prebiotic nucleotide synthesis, for NASA PCE3 seminar series (9-6-23). Intro from start, talk starts at 3:00.

For a longer (55 minute) talk on prebiotic nucleotide synthesis, see this talk from (26-8-22)

Short talk (25 min) on prebiotic amino acid derivative synthesis, for Australasia Astrobiology Meeting (15-6-23). Intro from 0:18:16.

New paper!

Congratulations to undergraduate Sasha on her first co-authored paper, with her isotopic labelling studies providing an integral part of our newly published work on amino acid derivative synthesis in formamide. If you are interested in the origin of amino acids on Earth, check out our Strecker-like chemistry to form N-formylamino nitriles and acids, alongside some exotic amino acid derivatives, in Journal of the American Chemical Society: Prebiotic Synthesis of N-formylaminonitriles and Derivatives in Formamide, https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c13306 . (30-5-2023)