Dr Amanda Jarvis

UKRI Future Leaders Fellow

Biography

Background

Amanda Jarvis is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, Senior Lecturer in Chemistry and the Director of Training for the Center of Engineering Biology, University of Edinburgh. She joined the University of Edinburgh in 2017 as a Christina Miller Fellow, prior to that, she was a Marie Curie Independent Fellow at the University of St Andrews, working on artificial metalloenzymes, and also conducted postdoctoral studies in homogeneous catalysis at the ICSN-CNRS, Gif sur Yvette, France. She received her PhD from the University of York in 2011, and was an undergraduate student in Chemistry at the University of St Andrews (2002-2007).

Research summary

Catalysis, artificial enzymes, organometallic chemistry, sustainable chemistry, ligand design.

Research Overview

My research is interested in the application of biological architecture to the design of transition-metal catalysts, to develop highly selective catalysts for ‘unnatural’ reactions such as direct C-H amination. I am fascinated by the opportunities that artificial metalloenzymes offer in terms of enhancing selectivity and reactivity of reactions, whilst also offering routes towards more sustainable chemistry. The long terms aims of the group are to develop more sustainable catalytic chemistry, either using more abundant and easily accessible metals or improving the atom efficiency of the overall organic transformations by going towards the activation of small molecules - CO, nitrogen, ammonia.

I am interested in obtaining a well-rounded understanding of the catalysts and their reactions, and thus study catalyst development from a number of different perspectives such as enzyme engineering, inorganic/organometallic catalyst development and the application of these catalysis in chemical synthesis.

Expertise: Biocatalysis, Biotechnology, homogenous catalysis, bioinorganic chemistry, protein characterisation - CD, MS, UV-vis, genetic code expansion, non-canonical amino acid synthesis.

Sectors: Biotechnology, Healthcare, Catalysis, Synthesis & Manufacture, Environment & Sustainability

Dr Jarvis's research group focuses on introducing new properties into proteins and peptides for applications primarily in catalysis for sustainable chemical synthesis, but also in healthcare and materials. She has expertise in the design and synthesis of unnatural amino acids, bioconjugation chemistry, genetic code expansion in E. coli., the development of artificial enzymes and characterisation of metalloproteins.

She is currently the Director of Training for the Center of Engineering Biology at the University of Edinburgh. Part of her role is to work with members of the center to develop our program of Continuing Professional Development in areas of relevance to Engineering Biology, both for internal and external partners.

She worked in the Oil Industry between 2005-2006, performing non-routine oil analysis and researching methods to recycle fracturing fluids, which gave rise to two patents (US-7575690-B2; US-7575382-B2). More recently, she has worked alongside industrial partners on collaborative studentships in biocatalysis.

Webpage: https://www.amandajarvis.co.uk/ 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-jarvis-a3834556

 

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