DrAndreas Luxenburger

Dr Andreas Luxenburger joined the Carbohydrate Chemistry group at Industrial Research Ltd (now the Ferrier Research Institute) in 2005. He has been involved with a number of major commercial projects as well as the synthesis of carbohydrate-based small molecule bioactives as potential therapeutics for diabetes and tuberculosis.

Since 2007 he has been the programme manager of the Chiral Pharmaceuticals Initiative, which involves the preparation of chiral scaffold-based drug discovery libraries for biological screening. Now he is leading the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Technologies programme that is focused on developing novel therapeutics and efficient manufacturing processes. His current research interests also include the development of selective kinase inhibitors.

Andreas studied chemistry at Saarland University in Germany, graduating Diplom-Chemiker and in 2001 Doctorate in Chemistry (Dr. rer. nat.) for his work with Prof Theophil Eicher on the synthesis of structurally modified derivatives of carnosol, a natural product from sage and rosemary. This was followed by postdoctoral studies in medicinal chemistry with Professor Gerd Dannhardt at the University of Mainz on novel non-sugar selectin inhibitors and with Professor Leo A. Paquette at Ohio State University on the total synthesis of the highly complex tetranortriterpene limonoid natural product, dumsin.