Your Location Within Site:
Peter Tyler
Dr Peter Tyler received the ranking of Distringuished Scientist in recognition of his design and synthesis of new biologically active carbohydrate molecules, including the discovery of compounds that block T-cell proliferation (a discovery that subsequently brought in more than $6 million in royalty payments to IRL), a new anti-cancer compound that alters important gene expression in tumour cells, and a potential new type of anti-bacterial control that works by blocking bacterial quorum sensing.
Peter Tyler
Peter, who is Programme Leader of the Gylcotherapeutics and New Synthetic Methods programmes at IRL, is one of five Science Team Leaders within the Carbohydrate Chemistry group, led by Dr Richard Furneaux.
Peter is a dedicated bench chemist and an essential part of the duo that began the Carbohydrate Chemistry group in 1985.
A PhD from Victoria University of Wellington landed him a job as an analytical chemist, but when he teamed up with Richard to work on the synthesis of a new class of pesticides, his extraordinary talent for organic synthesis was realised.
Richard leads the commercial side of the now substantial business, leaving Peter free to pursue his chemistry. “I have maintained a strong focus on bench work and hopefully set an example of what a chemist should do,” Peter says. "I do think the team has been successful because of this focus."
Peter’s expertise and enthusiasm for practical chemistry have been crucial to the team’s success and Furneaux has always relied on him.
“Peter is our number one organic chemist. He has both an extra special chemical creativity and an incredible effectiveness. He is often right first time and he never gives up.”
A significant collaboration with Professor Vern Schramm from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM) began in 1993 and has seen hundreds of compounds tested with some licensed and progressing to clinical trials.
“Vern has methods that reveal the active site of an enzyme at the point of catalysis—the ‘transition state’. That’s what we use as a template to design and synthesise the enzyme inhibitors, but until you actually test the compound in an assay, you don’t know if it will work or not. Because we can only approximate the transition state with a stable molecule, there are always limitations that have to be overcome,” Peter says.
“Things really took off when we started working with Vern. It’s become a legend now, but Richard and I really did meet him at a New York yacht club where he drew the chemical structure of a nucleoside hydrolase inhibitor he wanted us to make on a bar napkin. We brought it home and in due course synthesised the molecule in 21 steps — and it was a very powerful inhibitor. I often wish we still had that napkin!
“We’ve gone on to make many more families of inhibitors with Vern, to target a range of nucleoside processing enzymes. Einstein tests them in a range of assays and animal models for biological activity. We have to use lots of different chemistry to make each inhibitor and some of it is pretty long and complex.
“We’ve published many patents and journal articles and have a compound in Phase 2 clinical trials at the moment as a treatment for gout. It seems to work very well in combination with another drug. Chemistry is nothing in itself, but when partnered with biology, real progress can be made. I know there are people who are alive today because of the chemistry we’ve done, and that’s very satisfying.
Peter and Richard have enjoyed rivalry on the golf course for many years, though it’s unusual for Peter to be beaten. Richard comments, “One of Peter’s characteristics is clear at the end of our regular Saturday golf game. He always has his clubs stowed, his gear changed, and is gone well before the rest of us. Everything he does in life has been thought through, and he has found the most efficient way of doing it.”
In 2008 Peter was elected a Fellow of the RSNZ[?] for his achievements in creating complex molecules that are potent drugs.