Professor Glenn Deacon

Position: Professor, Chemistry

Affiliation: Monash University

Postal Address:
School of Chemistry
Monash University
Victoria 3800
AUSTRALIA

Phone: +61 (03) 990 54568
Fax: +61 (03) 9905 4597
Email: Glen.Deacon@sci.monash.edu.au
Webpage: http://www.chem.monash.edu.au

Research Profile

Professor Deacon has a long connection of consulting and research collaboration with industry and government agencies, including areas such as fuel additives, corrosion inhibitors, mining and environmental issues, bismuth antibacterials and antiulcer drugs, and metal-based dyes for solar cells. He has been a consultant for Faulding, the Australian formulation and marketing company for platinum anticancer drugs, and two research programs (one Teaching Company Scheme and one PhD) have been carried out in collaboration with Faulding. His work on platinum anticancer drugs has also been supported at various stages by the Anticancer Council of Victoria and by AMRAD, and has involved multidisciplinary collaboration, so essential in the field of drug development. A provisional patent was lodged for a group of his antitumour agents. In the area of precious metal chemistry and metal-based antitumour agents, he has supervised solo or jointly (to graduation) some 17 BSc (Hons) students (12 H1) and 9 PhD students. Of these, 2 Honours graduates and 3 PhD students obtained their first employment in pharmaceutical/R&D companies with direct involvement in platinum anticancer drugs. He has 3 current PhD students, 2 near completion in this area. Together with Prof. Hambley and IDT Australia, he has recently been awarded a Linkage grant to advance a group of novel platinum(IV) drugs to clinical trial.

Professor Deacon's extensive research involvement and reputation has been recognised by Monash University by a new formal 0.1 Professorial appointment for 5 years with the continuing title of Professor of Chemistry. He is in practice a full-time Research Professor. In addition to his continuing research group, two new (joint) Honours and one PhD student, and one shared Postdoctoral Fellow have joined his various research activities this year, and he has been appointed to the ARC committee.

Selected Publications

1. Modifying the properties of platinum(IV) complexes in order to increase biological effectiveness. T.W. Hambley, A.R. Battle, G.B. Deacon, E.T. Lawrenz, G.D. Fallon, B.M. Gatehouse, L.K. Webster, S. Rainone, J. Inorg. Biochem., 1999, 77, 3-12.
2. Diverse heteroleptic ytterbium(III) thiocyanate complexes by oxidation from bis(thiocyanato)ytterbium(II). G.B. Deacon, C.M. Forsyth, and D.L. Wilkinson, Chemistry – A European Journal, 2001, 7, 1784-1795.
3. Cis-Bis(pyridine)platinum(II) organoamides with unexpected growth inhibition and antitumour activity, L.K. Webster, G.B. Deacon, D.P. Buxton, B.L. Hillcoat, A.M. James, I.A.G. Roos, R.J. Thomson, L.P.G. Wakelin and T.L. Williams, J. Med. Chem., 1992, 35, 3349-3353.
4. Platinum(IV) organometallics. I. Syntheses of trans-di(carboxylato)(ethane-1,2-diamine)-cis-bis(pentafluorophenyl)platinum(IV) complexes and the X-ray crystal structure of the n-butanoato derivative. G.B. Deacon, E.T. Lawrenz, T.W. Hambley, S. Rainone and L.K. Webster, J. Organomet. Chem. 1995, 493, 205-213.
5. Organoamidometallics VI. A new synthetic route to [N,N'-bis(polyfluorophenyl)ethane-1,2-diaminato(2-)]dipyridineplatinum(II) complexes and the preparation of [N-phenyl-N'-polyfluorophenyl)ethane-1,2-diaminato(2 )]dipyridineplatinum(II) complexes. G.B. Deacon, B.M. Gatehouse, S.T. Haubrich, J.Ireland and E.T. Lawrenz, Polyhedron, 1998, 17, 791-802.
6. A striking multi-faceted decalithium aggregate with carbanion, organoamide, and alkoxide functionalities. P.C. Andrews, G.B. Deacon, C.M. Forsyth and N.M. Scott, Angew. Chem., 2001, 113, 2166-2169; Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2001, 40, 2108-2111.