Associate Professor Richard Clark

Associate Professor

School of Biomedical Sciences
Faculty of Medicine
richard.clark@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 51527

Overview

Dr Clark is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Biomedical Sciences where he is Head of the Peptide Chemical Biology Lab. He completed his PhD in 2000 at the UQ Chemistry Department studying marine natural products chemistry and chemical ecology with Prof. Mary Garson. He then shifted his research focus towards peptide chemistry, structural biology and drug design when he was recruited to the lab of Prof. David Craik at the IMB. His current research focus is the development of technologies to stabilise peptide therapeutics and the elucidation of the structure/function activity of bioactive peptides.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
  • Bachelor (Honours) of Science (Advanced), University of Tasmania

Publications

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Grants

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Supervision

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Available Projects

  • Conotoxins, with their exquisite specificity and potency have recently created much excitement as drug leads for the treatment of chronic pain. For example, the conotoxin MVIIA (also known as Ziconotide or Prialt) has been approved for use in the U.S. and Europe for the treatment of pain and several other conotoxins have entered clinical trials. In addition, a number of conotoxins have played a critical role in dissecting the molecular mechanisms of ion channel and transporter functions in the nervous system.

    There are projects available in the design of novel conotoxins that target specific receptors involved in pain.

  • Hepcidin is the principal iron-regulatory hormone and the key mediator of iron overload (haemochromatosis) and anaemia of inflammation. This research project involves two development streams of peptide design, synthesis and structure/function analysis. The first stream will focus on the specific residues important for biological activity of hepcidin and the mutation of these residues to improve activity. The second stream will involve the development of stabilised analogues of native hepcidin. The two streams will coalesce during the final round of development to produce a series of novel cyclic hepcidin drug leads.

View all Available Projects

Publications

Book Chapter

  • Daniel, James T. and Clark, Richard J. (2017). Molecular engineering of Conus peptides as therapeutic leads. Peptides and peptide-based biomaterials and their biomedical applications. (pp. 229-254) edited by Anwar Sunna, Andrew Care and Peter L. Bergquist. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-66095-0_10

  • Craik, David J., Smith, Philippa A. and Clark, Richard James (2010). NMR-based screening and drug discovery. Burger's medicinal chemistry, drug discovery, and development. (pp. 359-437) edited by Donald J. Abraham, David P. Rotella and Alfred Burger. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. doi: 10.1002/0471266949

  • Craik, D. J. and Clark, R. J. (2008). Structure-based Drug Design and NMR-based screening. Pharmacology from drug development to gene therapy. (pp. 225-313) edited by R. A. Meyers. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH Verlag GMBH & Co.

  • Craik, D. J. and Clark, R. J. (2005). Structure-based drug design and NMR-based screening. Encyclopdeia of Molecular Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine. (pp. 517-605) edited by Robert A Meyers. Germany: Wiley-VCH.

  • Craik, D. J. and Clark, R. J. (2003). NMR and Drug Discovery. Burger's Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery, Vol 1, Drug Discovery. (pp. 507-582) edited by Donald J Abraham. USA: John Wiley & Sons. doi: 10.1002/0471266949.bmc011

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

Completed Supervision

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • Conotoxins, with their exquisite specificity and potency have recently created much excitement as drug leads for the treatment of chronic pain. For example, the conotoxin MVIIA (also known as Ziconotide or Prialt) has been approved for use in the U.S. and Europe for the treatment of pain and several other conotoxins have entered clinical trials. In addition, a number of conotoxins have played a critical role in dissecting the molecular mechanisms of ion channel and transporter functions in the nervous system.

    There are projects available in the design of novel conotoxins that target specific receptors involved in pain.

  • Hepcidin is the principal iron-regulatory hormone and the key mediator of iron overload (haemochromatosis) and anaemia of inflammation. This research project involves two development streams of peptide design, synthesis and structure/function analysis. The first stream will focus on the specific residues important for biological activity of hepcidin and the mutation of these residues to improve activity. The second stream will involve the development of stabilised analogues of native hepcidin. The two streams will coalesce during the final round of development to produce a series of novel cyclic hepcidin drug leads.