Shiao Chow

I graduated from the University of Queensland (Australia) with a BBiotech (Honours Class I) and PhD in Chemical Sciences under the supervision of Prof. David Fairlie, where I worked on synthetic metalloenzymes, developed helical peptidomimetics, and led drug discovery campaigns against infectious diseases. I joined the group of Prof Luke Odell (Uppsala University, Sweden) as a Carl Tryggers Fellow and developed novel carbonylative transformations using transition metal, photoredox and radical catalysis, and implemented these methods to develop ¹¹C-radiotracers. I then joined the lab of Prof Adam Nelson (Leeds University, UK) and worked on the development of autonomous drug discovery platform. In 2018, I received a MSCA fellowship and joined the University of Edinburgh, where I developed targeted cancer theranostics with Prof Unciti-Broceta, and targeted cancer therapeutics with Prof Liz Patton as a MRC Fellow. In 2022, I joined the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry as a Chancellor's Fellow.

My research interests are centred on a ‘Catalysis’ theme, and interface computational science, chemistry and biology. My research aims to build next generation bioorthogonal catalysts – by combining nature’s enzymes and synthetic catalysts – to perform advanced biological interrogation in living systems. The long term aims of my research are to develop smarter diagnostic tools for early detection and disease prevention.

• synthetic chemisty
• transition metal catalysis
• peptidomimetics
• radiochemistry
• high-throughput experimentation
• chemical biology
• molecular imaging
• positron emission tomography