Prof David O'Hagan
Professor
Biography
Professor David O'Hagan was born in Glasgow and studied chemistry at the University of Glasgow (1982). He carried out a Ph.D (1985) in polyketide antibiotic biosynthesis at the University of Southampton with Professor John A Robinson and then he spent a postdoctoral year at the Ohio State University with Professor Heinz G. Floss, investigating peptide antibiotic biosynthesis. In 1986 he was appointed to the University of Durham where he continued to explore natural product biosynthesis but also developed a strong interest in organo-fluorine chemistry. He remained at Durham until 2000 before moving to his current position as Professor and Head of Organic Chemistry at the University of St Andrews. His research interests extend from the synthesis and properties of organo-fluorine compounds, fluorination enzymology, fluorine-18 chemistry for positron emission tomography (PET) and through to fluorinated organic materials.
He was a founding member and a past Chair of the RSC Fluorine Group. He was awarded the IChemE, 'Judges Award' for fluorinase enzyme isolation in 2002, was elected FRSE in 2004, was awarded the RSC Malcolm Campbell Memorial Prize in Medicinal Chemistry in 2005, was a recipient of the RSC Tilden Medal in 2006/2007, was the RSC 'Natural Product Reports Award' Lecturer in 2009, was awarded the American Chemical Society (ACS) Award for 'Creative Work in Fluorine Chemistry' in 2012, was awarded a Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award in 2013 and was awarded the RSC Organic Stereochemistry award in 2015.
In 2018 David was awarded the Moissan Prize, which is awarded every three years by the Fondation de la Maison de la Chime in Paris for contributions to fluorine chemistry.
PhD supervision
- George Kingsley-Moore
- Sixing Lin
- Nachiket Deepak More
- Josephine Stewart
- Michel Zeitoun
Selected publications
-
A2A adenosine receptor agonists with last-step enzymatic 18F-labelling potential (fluorinase) for positron emission tomography (PET)
O'Hagan, D., Charalambous, N., Lowe, P., Dall'Angelo, S., Schleidt, C., Liu, R. & Heitman, L., 2 Dec 2025, In: European Journal of Organic Chemistry. Accepted/in pressResearch output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
Bioactivity profiles of progressively ring-fluorinated cyclohexyl motifs in the WKYMVm peptide as formylpeptide FPR2 agonists and in keto-piperazines as antitrypanosome agents
He, M., Thomson, C. M., Thompson, D., Kuodis, V., Smith, T. K., Dall'Angelo, S. & O'Hagan, D., 3 Oct 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: ChemBioChem. Early View, 8 p., 2500384.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
Exploring linear mono-, bis- and tris-acetylene containing agonists of the human olfactory receptor OR1A1
Liu, W., Dobson, L. S., Zhang, C., Sun, J., Lowe, P. T., Liu, Y., Zhuang, H. & O'Hagan, D., 16 Jun 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Ahead of Print, 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
On the nature of improper hydrogen bonding in RCH2F and RCHF2 motifs
Piscelli, B. A., Bühl, M., Cormanich, R. A. & O'Hagan, D., 11 Nov 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Early View, 15 p., e18500.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
Performance of semiempirical DFT methods for the supramolecular assembly of Janus-face cyclohexanes
Piscelli, B. A., Swithenbank-Michel, T., Cormanich, R. A., O'Hagan, D. & Bühl, M., 7 Oct 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. Advance Article, 12 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
Aryl-fluorocyclopropane β-lactams with activity against Mycobacteroides abscessus and Mycobacterium bovis BCG
Spurling, D. E., Baker, E. J., Kingsley-Moore, G. R., Neyya Ppadath, R. M., More, N. D., Al-Maharik, N., Harrison, J., Cox, J. A. G. & O'Hagan, D., 9 Nov 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) In: European Journal of Organic Chemistry. Early View, 9 p., e202401050.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
Conformational analysis explores the role of electrostatic non-classical CFHC hydrogen bonding interactions in selectively halogenated cyclohexanes
He, M., Piscelli, B., Cormanich , R. & O'Hagan, D., 15 Mar 2024, In: The Journal of Organic Chemistry. 89, 6, p. 4009–4018 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
Exploring fluorinase substrate tolerance at C-2 of SAM
Lowe, P. T., Lüddecke, I. T. & O'Hagan, D., 17 Nov 2024, In: ChemBioChem. 7 p., e202400861.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
Halogenated adenine and adenosine natural products in Streptomyces sp. JCM9888
Chen, Y., Lowe, P., Deng, H. & O'Hagan, D., 30 Oct 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) In: European Journal of Organic Chemistry. Early View, 9 p., e202400578.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
Synthesis and analysis of (γ,γ', γ'', - Trifluoro)neopentyl (TFNP) aryl ethers as a polar fluoroaliphatic motif
Tarui, A., Piscelli, B. A., Al-Maharik, N., Stewart, J. M., Niemcová, P., Cordes, D. B., McKay, A., Murphy, C. D., Cormanich, R. A. & O'Hagan, D., 11 Oct 2024, In: Chemistry - A European Journal. 30, 57, 5 p., e202402532.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review