Peter McPherson

Dr Peter McPherson earned a PhD from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) which focused on a biophysical characterisation of high-density lipoprotein and the effects of hypolipidaemic agents. He worked in a teaching-focused role at Belfast Metropolitan College (UK) becoming Curriculum Manager for Applied Science, Dental Nursing & Pharmacy.

Having worked in the health service for a number of years, including a secondment to New York Presbyterian Hospital (USA), Peter has almost twenty years’ experience linking the basic sciences to the clinical environment.

An advocate of widening participation, Peter has been involved in a range of STEM outreach activities and is an Examiner for A-level Chemistry and BTEC Applied Science. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a Chartered Chemist.

Research in this group focuses on drug delivery/stability and utilises a range of traditional wet chemistry and computational methods. 

Sustainable Drug Delivery

A major focus of our work is to employ the twelve principles of green chemistry to improve the sustainability profile of drug delivery methods employing liposomes. Current research focuses on optimising the extraction of phospholipids from Palmaria palmata using biobased-solvents. This involves traditional solubility studies and computational investigations using density functional theory.

Astropharmacy

The stability of drugs in Earth orbit and further out into the solar system is significantly affected by galactic cosmic radiation. This has implications for the safety of astronauts on the International Space Station and any potential missions to Mars. Our research in this area focuses on assessing the radiation stability of drugs and development of novel radioprotective compounds.

Improving Drug Stability with Natural Products

A large number of drugs exhibit photosensitivity which limits their shelf-life. We are currently using the Northern Ireland High Performance Computing facility (Kelvin2) to investigate the use of the indole alkaloid scytonemin in protecting solid dosage forms against UV-induced degredation. 

Inquiry- and context-based learning is a major feature of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. Areas of interest include:

• Physical Chemistry
• Pharmaceutics
• Mathematics & Statistics
• Radiopharmacy