Newcastle University

Background

After finishing my DPhil with Dr. Jeremy Robertson (Oxford) entitled "Silicon Tethered Ene and Allyl Transfer Reactions", I moved to Dublin for a postdoctoral position with Dr. Donal O'Shea (UCD) where I worked on the synthesis of switchable photodynamic therapy agents. I then moved to Paris to work with Professor Janine Cossy and Dr Christophe Meyer (ESPCI) on the total synthesis of Phoslactomycin. I subsequently was appointed as a Teaching Fellow at Newcastle University in 2007 before taking a position as Lecturer in Organic Chemistry in October 2007.

Qualifications

DPhil, Linacre College, Oxford, 2003
MChem, Brasenose College, Oxford, 1999

Previous Positions

CNRS Postdoctoral Research Fellow, ESPCI, Paris, 2006
Postdoctoral Research Assistant, CSCB, University College Dublin, 2003-2005

Memberships

Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry
Member of the Society of Chemistry and Industry

Research Interests

Hall Group Research Page

Synthetic organic chemistry: Natural Products, Bioactive molecules, Microwave Chemistry

Current Work

Current work is divided into three research areas; isolation, characterisation and synthesis of biologically active natural products, new synthetic methodology based on multicomponent "one pot" reactions and new methods in microwave assisted organic chemistry.

Esteem Indicators

Royal Society MP/Civil servant-Scientist Pairing Scheme Fellow 2009
"Marine Biotechnology" Editorial Board, Associate Editor
Referee: RSC (OBC and Chem Comm), Elsevier (TL)
Referee: Nuffield Vacation Scholarships

Funding

2010: £170,000 NERC (with Prof Burgess, School of Marine Science and Technology and Dr Nijland, UMC Utrecht NE/I01523X/1), £15,000 NERC (with Prof Burgess, School of Marine Science and Technology and Dr Nijland, UMC Utrecht NE/I00761X/1), EPSRC Doctoral Training Grant (J Cowell)
2009: £2000 EPSRC Summer Studentship (J Cowell)
2008: £1225 Nuffield Foundation Undergraduate Research Bursaries (A Shouksmith), £11,900 NERC (with Prof Burgess and Dr Nijland, School of Marine Science and Technology NE/G011206/1), EPSRC Doctoral Training Grant (L Cotterill)

Undergraduate Teaching

CHY2101 - Organic Chemistry: Heteroaromatic Chemistry
CHY3101 - Advanced Organic Chemistry (Module leader)
CHY3105 - Advanced Organic Chemistry DL - (Module leader)
CHY8422 - Further Organic Chemistry (Module leader)

Postgraduate Teaching

CHY8820 - Organic Synthesis for Drug Targets
CHY8824 - Methods and Techniques for Drug Chemistry
CHY8811 - Research Project and Dissertation (Module leader)
MChem and MSc project supervison

Admissions Tutor - MSc Drug Chemistry

• Burgess JG, Hall MJ, Nijland R. Compounds and methods for biolfilm disruption and prevention. PCT/EP2011/052062, 2011, 11 February. Submitted.
• Cotterill LJ, Hall MJ. Pericyclic reactions in divergent synthesis: Application to 4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-1H-benzoimidazoles. In: Abstracts of Papers of the American Chemical Society: 241st National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). 2011, Anaheim, California, USA: American Chemical Society.
• Druais V, Hall MJ, Corsi C, Wendeborn SV, Meyer C, Cossy J. A convergent approach toward phoslactomycins and leustroducsins. Tetrahedron 2010, 66(33), 6358-6375.
• Burgess JG, Hall MJ, Nijland R. Compounds and methods for biofilm disruption and prevention. GB1002396.8, 2010, 12 February.
• Nijland N, Hall MJ, Burgess JG. Dispersal of Biofilms by Secreted, Matrix Degrading, Bacterial DNase. PLoS ONE 2010,5 12 e15668.
• Cotterill LJ, Harrington RW, Clegg W, Hall MJ. Thermal 1,3-Trityl Migrations in Diels-Alder Domino Reactions of 1-Trityl-4-vinyl-1H-imidazoles. Journal of Organic Chemistry 2010, 75(13), 4604–4607.
• Druais V, Hall MJ, Corsi C, Wendeborn SV, Meyer C, Cossy J. A Convergent Approach towards the C1–C11 Subunit of Phoslactomycins and Formal Synthesis of Phoslactomycin B. Organic Letters 2009, 11(4), 935–938.
• Robertson J, Hall MJ, Green SP. Stereospecific α-(methyl)allylation of hydroxyaldehydes by silatropic ene cyclisation. Tetrahedron 2009, 65(28), 5541-5551.
• Byrne AT, O'Connor AE, Hall M, Murtagh J, O'Neill K, Curran KM, Mongrain K, Rousseau JA, Lecomte R, McGee S, Callanan JJ, O'Shea DF, Gallagher WM. Vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy with BF2-chelated Tetraaryl-Azadipyrromethene agents: a multi-modality molecular imaging approach to therapeutic assessment. British Journal of Cancer 2009, 101(9), 1565-1573.
• Loudet A, Bandichhor R, Burgess K, Palma A, McDonnell SO, Hall MJ, O'Shea DF. B,O-Chelated Azadipyrromethenes as Near-IR Probes. Organic Letters 2008, 10(21), 4771-4774.
• Robertson J, Green SP, Hall MJ, Tyrrell AJ, Unsworth WP. Further studies on silatropic carbonyl ene cyclisations: β-crotyl(diphenyl)silyloxy aldehyde substrates; Synthesis of 2-deoxy-2-C-phenylhexoses. Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry 2008, 6(14), 2628-2635.
• Hall MJ, Allen LT, O'Shea DF. PET modulated fluorescent sensing from the BF₂ chelated azadipyrromethene platform. Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry 2006,4 5 776-780.
• Hall MJ, McDonnell SO, Killoran J, O'Shea DF. A Modular Synthesis of Unsymmetrical Tetraarylazadipyrromethenes. The Journal of Organic Chemistry 2005, 70(14), 5571-5578.
• Gallagher WM, Allen LT, O'Shea C, Kenna T, Hall M, Gorman A, Killoran J, O'Shea DF. A Potent Non-Porphyrin Class of Photodynamic Therapeutic Agent: Cellular Localization, Potential and Influence on Hypoxia. British Journal of Cancer 2005,92 9 1702-1710 .
• McDonnell SO, Hall MJ, Allen LT, Byrne A, Gallagher WM, O'Shea DF. Supramolecular Photonic Therapeutic Agents. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2005,127 47 16360-16361.
• Robertson J, Hall MJ, Stafford PM, Green SP. Ene cyclisations of α-(prenyl)dialkylsilyloxy aldehydes: formation and oxidative cleavage of oxasilacyclohexanols. Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry 2003, 1(21), 3758-3767.
• Robertson J, Hall MJ, Green SP. Stereospecificity in the silicon tethered -(methyl)allylation of aldehydes. Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry 2003,1 3635-3638.
• Taylor PN, O'Connell MJ, McNeill LA, Hall MJ, Aplin RT, Anderson HL. Insulated Molecular Wires: Synthesis of Conjugated Polyrotaxanes by Suzuki Coupling in Water. Angewandte Chemie 2000, 112(19), 3598-3602.