Prof. David Parker, FRS

(email at david.parker@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

David Parker is a native of the North-East of England and graduated with a First in Chemistry from Oxford University in 1978. He completed a D.Phil with John M Brown in 1980 on mechanistic studies in asymmetric catalysis. Following a NATO post-doctoral fellowship with Jean-Marie Lehn in Strasbourg, he returned to Durham to take up a Lectureship in Chemistry in 1982 and was promoted to a Chair in Chemistry in 1992. He received the RSC Hickinbottom Fellowship for 1988/9, the Corday-Morgan Medal and Prize in 1989, the ICI Prize in Organic Chemistry in 1991, the RSC Interdisciplinary Award in 1996, a Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship (1998/9), the inaugural IBC Award for Supramolecular Science and Technology in 2000, the first RSC award for Supramolecular Chemistry in 2002, and a Tilden lectureship and Silver Medal in 2003. In 2002 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. He served as the Chairman of the Department from 1995-8 and 2003-6.

Research Interests

Our research relates to the chemistry of complex chiral systems, using multidisciplinary techniques to address challenging aspects of complexation phenomena in aqueous media. It is concerned with:

• new aspects of complexation chemistry developing metal complexes or conjugates that may bind reversibly or react selectively with proteins or nucleic acids, and their behaviour, from in vitro studies, via in cellulo examinations to in vivo applications;
• the development of responsive, luminescent lanthanide complexes in which the metal-based emission is a function of the local ionic or chiral environment; work embraces the creation of imaging probes for bioactive ions
• the synthesis and characterisation of functional magnetic resonance probes, developing responsive and targeted paramagnetic contrast agents for Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy (MRI/MRS).

We enjoy fruitful collaborations with academic and industrial research groups in Italy (Turin and Alessandria), France (CISBio), Germany and the USA as well as several leading labs in the UK. We participate in networks of excellence within the EC and in ESF COST Action D38. Within the group, pulsed NMR, luminescence spectroscopy and microscopy, electrospray mass spectrometry, LC and pH-metric methods of analysis are used to define the nature of solution complexation phenomena.

Responsive Lanthanide Complexes and Sensors

Several single component, macrocyclic complexes of the lanthanide ions have been devised in which the delayed emission from the metal ion is a sensitive function of pH, dissolved oxygen and the concentration of certain anions - including phosphorus(V) oxy-anions, bicarbonate, lactate citrate and urate. The factors determining the cellular localisation profile of well-defined series of metal complexes are being studied, including an understanding of the mechanism of cell uptake and trafficking. Gadolinium complexes and conjugates are also being prepared, including systems in which their effectiveness as contrast agents in MR is a sensitive function of the local environment. In collaboration with colleagues in Newcastle and Mainz, fluorinated functional probes for imaging in cancer are being developed for ¹⁹F magnetic resonance and ⁶⁸Ga and ¹⁸F positron emission tomography (PET).

References

1. C. P. Montgomery, E. J. New, D. Parker and R. D. Peacock, Chem. Commun., 2008, 4261; F. Kielar, A. Congreve, G-L. Law, E. J. New, D. Parker and K-L. Wong, Chem. Commun., 2008, 2435.
2. C. P. Montgomery, E. J. New, R. Pal and D. Parker, Acc. Chem. Res. 2009 42, 925; D. Parker, Chem. Soc. Rev., 2004, 33, 156.
3. R. Pal , L. C. Costello and D. Parker, Org. Biomol. Chem. 2009, 7, 1525; R. Pal and D. Parker, Org. Biomol.Chem., 2008, 6, 1020.
4. E. J. New and D. Parker, Org. Biomol. Chem. 2009, 7, 851; J. Yu, R. Pal, D. Parker, R. Poole, M. J. Cann, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2006, 128, 2294.
5. F. Kielar, C. P. Montgomery, E. J. New, D. Parker, R. A. Poole, S. L. Richardson and P. A. Stenson, Org. Biomol. Chem., 2007, 5, 2975.
6. D. Parker, P. K. Senanayake, A. M. Kenwright and S. K. van der Hoorn, Chem. Commun., 2007, 2923; A. M. Kenwright, I. Kuprov, E. De Luca, D. Parker, S. U. Pandya, P. K. Senanayake and D. G. Smith, Chem. Commun., 2008, 2514.

Links

The Parker group WWW pages