Marie-Claire Giel

Marie-Claire has extensive experience in several areas of synthetic and medicinal chemistry including click chemistry, small molecule covalent inhibitors, and the design of fluorescent reporters for disease detection.

Marie-Claire completed her PhD in click chemistry at La Trobe University. In the area of click chemistry, she worked on the reengineering of existing antibiotics to combat antibiotic resistance and drug-induced toxicity and developed several synthetic methodologies focused on the rapid generation of compound libraries. These discoveries facilitated several national collaborations with researchers focused on anti-bacterials, anti-fungals and cancer biology and international collaborations with Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry and the Scripps Research Institute. In addition to her research in click chemistry, she designed a series of novel compounds that were identified as potent herbicides.

Following her PhD, Marie-Claire worked as a postdoctoral researcher at La Trobe University on the design and synthesis of fluorescent probes to aid in the detection of kidney disease-related biomarkers as part of the Australia-China Research Centre for Personal Health Technologies.

Prior to joining FPA, Marie-Claire was employed as a Research Fellow at the Australian Translational Medicinal Chemistry Facility within the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences working in a commercially oriented drug development program where she developed a strong interest in the translation of research into a clinical setting.

Marie-Claire was drawn to a career as a patent attorney as it offers a highly rewarding, intellectually stimulating career path with the opportunity to aid in the application of research in the tackling of significant community problems such as antibiotic resistance.

Marie-Claire has published multiple peer-reviewed articles in top science and chemistry journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) and Angewandte Chemie International Edition, including two publications with two-time Noble Prize winner Prof. K. B. Sharpless.

Before moving to Australia, Marie-Claire graduated from the University of Nottingham with a Master of Science with first class Honors in Biochemistry and Biological Chemistry and was awarded the prestigious Masson Gulland Medal and Prize for outstanding work in Chemistry.