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Prof. Tom Brown

Prof. Tom Brown

Professor of Nucleic Acid Chemistry

University of Oxford

https://www.browngroupnucleicacidsresearch.org.uk/

Professional background: Tom Brown studied Chemistry at Bradford University where he completed his Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Gordon Shaw in 1979. He carried out postdoctoral research at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, before moving to Edinburg University in 1985 as a lecturer. In 1995 he moved to Southampton as a Professor of Nucleic Acid Chemistry. He is now a Professor of Nucleic Acid Chemistry at the University of Oxford. His research interest centre on nucleic acid chemistry and its applications in biology and medicine, mainly in the areas of diagnostics and therapeutics. He is the co-inventor of several technologies for genetic analysis and is a co-founder of three successful Biotech companies: Oswel, Primer Design and ATDBio. He has published over 450 research papers and patents. During his time at the University of Oxford he has received many prestigious awards including the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Josef Loschmidt priye, the RSC award for Nucleic Acid Chemistry, the RSC prize for Interdisciplinary Research, Chemistry World entrepreneur of the year for 2014, and UK BBSRC research council Innovator of the Year for 2016. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and has served as President of the Chemistry Biology Interface Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He was Editor-in-Chief of the RSC Book series on Chemical Biology, and was co-Chair of the EuCheMS congress in Liverpool in 2018.

Selected publications:

  • J. Hennessy, P. Klimkowski, D. Singleton, A. Gibney, M. Coche, N.P. Farrell, A. H. El-Sagheer, T. Brown, and A. Kellett, Thiazole orange-carboplatin triplex-forming oligonucleotide (TFO) combination probes enhance targeted DNA crosslinking, RSC Medicinal Chemistry, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1039/D3MD00548H
  • Y. Baker, C. Thorpe, J. Chen, L. Poller, L. Cox, P. Kumar, W. F. Lim, L. Lie, G. McClorey, S. Epple, D. Singleton, M. McDonough, J. Hardwick, K. Christensen, M. Wood, J. Hall, A. El-Sagheer, T. Brown. An LNA-amide modification that enhances the cell uptake and activity of phosphorothioate exon-skipping oligonucleotides, Nature Communications, 13, 1, 1-11 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31636-2
  • A. Dysko, Y. R. Baker, G. McClorey, M. J. A. Wood, S. Fenner, G. Williams, A. El-Sagheer, T. Brown. Covalently attached intercalators restore duplex stability and splice-switching activity to triazole-modified oligonucleotides, RSC Chemical Biology, 3, 765-772 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1039/D2CB00100D
  • C. Bai, P. Klimowski, C. Jin, J. Kuchlyan, A. H. El-Sagheer, T. Brown. A new phosphoramidite enables orthogonal double labelling to form combination oligonucleotide probes, Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, 20, 8618-8622 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1039/D2OB01899C
  • C. Jin, A. H. EI-Sagheer, S. Li, K. A. Vallis, W. Tan, T. Brown. Engineering Enzyme-Cleavable Oligonucleotides by Automated Solid-Phase Incorporation of Cathepsin B Sensitive Dipeptide Linkers, Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed.,61, 13, e202114016 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202114016
  • S. Epple, A. Modi, Y. R. Baker, E. Wegrzyn, D. Traoré, P. Wanat, A. E. S. Tyburn, A. Shivalingam, L. Taemaitree, A. H. El-Sagheer, T Brown. A New 1,5-Disubstituted Triazole DNA Backbone Mimic with Enhanced Polymerase Compatibility, Journal of American Chemical Society, 143, 39, 16293-16301 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c08057
  • S. Epple, A. H. El-Sagheer, T. Brown. Artificial nucleic acid backbones and their applications in therapeutics, synthetic biology and biotechnology, Emerging Topics in Life Sciences, 5, 5, 691-697 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1042/ETLS20210169