Cherie Motti

Biography

Dr.Cherie Motti is a Natural Products Chemist, she did PhD, Griffith University, "Molecular Modeling of the Okadaic Acid Class Compounds" in 1996. Her PhD focused on the use of molecular modeling techniques to map the pharmacophore of the okadaic acid class compounds, potent inhibitors of protein phosphatases 1 and 2A. My postdoctoral research (1996-1997) was conducted at the Queensland Pharmaceutical Research Institute (Griffith University) in biodiscovery with a focus on isolation and structure elucidation of bioactive natural products from marine and terrestrial sources. After a three year hiatus she joined the chemistry effort at AIMS. Initially she was involved in two externally funded biodiscovery programmes concentrating on herbicidal and anticancer activities from marine macro- and microorganisms. She also investigated the production of fine chemicals in target aquaculture sponge species which included chemical ecology studies to determine the biogeographical boundaries of the chemistry. In recent years, my research has diversified into metabolomics and functional analysis of secondary metabolites.

Research Interest

Ecology