Dr Nigel Lengkeek

Position: Radiometals Theme Leader / Organic Chemist
Phone: +61 (0)2 9717 3622
Email: nigel.lengkeek@ansto.gov.au   
 

Role at ANSTO

Nigel leads the radiometals theme, covering projects exploring novel radiometal ligand design for ⁶⁴Cu, ⁶⁸Ga, ⁸⁹Zr, ¹⁷⁷Lu, and more, radiometal complexation, and bioconjugation.

Background

After completing his PhD in Chemistry in 2007 at the University of Western Australia under the supervision of Prof. George Koutsantonis and Prof. Jack Harrowfield, Nigel remained at UWA until June 2010 working as a postdoctoral research associate in the Chemistry and Pharmacy Disciplines.

Nigel joined ANSTO in July 2010 as Postdoctoral Research Fellow supported by the CRC for Biomedical Imaging development. In June 2011 he moved to his current role as an organic chemist in ANSTO Lifesciences.

Research interests and areas of expertise

Nigel’s research interests lie in novel ligand development, bioconjugation, exotic PET and therapeutic radionuclides, and use of radiometals in PET imaging of various human disease states. He has expertise in synthetic inorganic and organic chemistry and a proficiency in a broad range of physical characterisation and separation techniques, including, multinuclear NMR, UV-Vis-NIR, IR and fluorescence spectroscopy, analytical and preparative HPLC, SEC/GPC, GC, GC-MS, electrochemistry, ion-exchange and size-exclusion chromatography.

Nigel maintains his links with Western Australia through collaborations with Prof. Roger Price at Medical Technology and Physics, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth, with A/Prof. Scott Stewart at the University of Western Australia, and with Prof. Mark Ogden and Dr. Max Massi at Curtin University of Technology.

Qualifications & Achievements

PhD (Chem) from the University of Western Australia (2007)
BSc (Chem) / BE (Materials) from the University of Western Australia (2002)

During his PhD, Nigel was awarded the Alexander Cohen Postgraduate travel award to work in the laboratories of Prof. Jean-Pierre Sauvage at Université Strasbourg (formally Université Louis Pasteur) for three months.

Nigel is a member of the Royal Australian Chemical Society, MRACI CCHEM, and the American Chemical Society. He is also a general committee member of the RACI Radiochemistry Division.

Key Publications

Lengkeek, N. A., Boulos, R. A., McKinley, A. J., Riley, T. V., Martinac, B., Stewart, S. G. The synthesis of fluorescent DNA intercalator precursors through efficient multiple Heck reactions. Australian Journal of Chemistry, 2011, 64, 316-323. (2011)
 
Harrowfield, J. M., Koutsantonis, G. A., Lengkeek, N. A., Skelton, B. W., White, A. H. Structural and electrochemical studies of Co(III) cage amine complexes with pendant thienylmethylamino groups. Inorganic Chemistry, 49, 3152-3161. (2010)
 
Koutsantonis, G. A., Lee, J., Lengkeek, N., Nealon, G., Skelton, B., White, A. Synthesis and characterisation of trinuclear metal complexes derived from carboxymethyl-substituted sarcophagine macrobicyclic cage amines.  Journal of Inclusion Phenomena and Macrocyclic Chemistry. 66(1), 61-66. (2010)
 
Lengkeek, N. A., Greenwood, P. F., Ngyuen, B., Koutsantonis, G. A., Piggott, M. J. Making mixtures to solve structures: structural elucidation via combinatorial synthesis. Journal of Combinatorial Chemistry, 12, 141-150. (2010)
 
Lengkeek, N. A., Harrowfield, J. M., Koutsantonis, G. A. Synthesis and electropolymerisation of N-(4’-carboxyphenyl)-2,5-di(2’’-thienyl)pyrrole. Synthetic Metals, 160(1-2), 72-75. (2010)
 
Greenwood, P. F., Lengkeek, N. A., Piggott, M. J., Pierce, K. Structural identification and mass spectral interpretation of C3n highly branched alkanes detected in sediment and aquatic extracts and further evidence for their anthropogenic origin. Organic Geochemistry, 40, 1055-1062. (2009)
 
Clark, I J., Crispini, A., Donnelly, P. S., Engelhardt, L. M., Harrowfield, J. M., Jeong, S-H., Kim, Y., Koutsantonis, G. A., Lee, Y. H., Lengkeek, N. A., et al. Variations on a cage theme: Some complexes of bicyclic polymaines as supramolecular synthons. Australian Journal of Chemistry, 62, 1246 – 1260. (2009)
 
Cifuentes, M. P., Humphrey, M. G., G.A. Koutsantonis, G. A., Lengkeek, N. A., Petrie, S., Sanford, V., Schauer, P. A., Stranger, R., Skelton, B. W.,  White, A. H. Coordinating tectons: bipyridyl terminated allenylidene complexes. Organometallics, 27(8), 1716 – 1726. (2008)
 
Asfari, Z., Bilyk, A., Bond, C., Harrowfield, J. M., Koutsantonis, G. A., Lengkeek, N. A., Mocerino, M., Skelton, B. W., Sobolev, A. N., Strano, S., Vicens, J., White, A. H. Factors influencing solvent adduct formation by calixarenes in the solid state. Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, 2, 387–396. (2004)