Professor Philip Andrews

EXPERTISE

  • Organometallic & Medicinal Chemistry
  • Bioactive metal compounds as anti-inflammatory, antitumour and antimicrobial agents

Prof Andrews and his team focus on the role of metals in chemical synthesis, biological and medicinal chemistry, medical imaging and theranostics. Of particular interest are metals of low toxicity, such as bismuth and gallium, which can be used to mimic and disrupt iron uptake and activity. His team investigates a number of medicinal chemistry avenues including the development of new bioactive metal compounds as anti-inflammatory, antitumour and antimicrobial agents, novel metal-based antimicrobial polymers and gels, new metallo-drugs for combating Leishmania, and examining the cellular uptake and bio-distribution of the applied metals.

Phil is Head of the School of Chemistry, Monash University. Prior to joining Monash in 1995, Professor Andrews was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, at the Philipps Universität, Marburg, Germany, and he held a Royal Society Fellowship, at Griffith University in Queensland. Phil is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. He completed his PhD at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and joined Monash as a Research Fellow and was subsequently successful in being awarded a five-year ARC QEII Fellowship in 1997. Since 1998 Professor Andrews has succeeded in securing nine major Australian Research Council (ARC) grants and most recently a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grant to produce a new range of bismuth-based antibacterial materials.

AMR FOCUS 

  • Development of new antimicrobial materials.
  • Bismuth compounds and materials in wound management and as 'clean surfaces'.
  • Bismuth‐nanocellulose composites and their efficacy towards multi‐drug resistant bacteria.
  • Discovering new bioactive metal compounds as anti-inflammatory, antitumour and antimicrobial agents.
  • Synthesis of homo- and hetero-bimetallic metal cages and materials for medical imaging and therapeutics.

IMPACT

  • Novel antimicrobial materials to combat the threat from resistant bacteria, commonly found in health-care facilities on medical instruments, devices, equipment, surfaces and implants.