Emma Watson

Dr Emma Watson

Lecturer

School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences

Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.


Emma Watson obtained her PhD from the University of Sydney, under the supervision of Professor Richard Payne, where her research focused on the chemical synthesis of post-translationally modified proteins. She then undertook a postdoctoral position in the laboratory of Professor Nicolas Winssinger at the University of Geneva, as an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellow.

Emma has recently returned to Australia as a Lecturer in Medicinal Chemistry, in the School of Physical Sciences. Her research focuses on using biomolecules as building blocks to develop smart, responsive systems for therapeutic applications.

  • Journals

    Year Citation
    2024 Carson, L. M., & Watson, E. (2024). Peptide Nucleic Acids: From Origami to Editing. ChemPlusChem, 89(11), e202400305-1-e202400305-11.
    DOI
    2023 Lopez Tena, M., Watson, E. E., Romanens, P., & Winssinger, N. (2023). Rapid Synthesis of Propargyl‐modified Peptide Nucleic Acid Monomers for Late‐Stage Functionalization of Oligomers. Helvetica Chimica Acta, 106(11), 14 pages.
    DOI Scopus1
    2023 Maxwell, J. W. C., Hawkins, P. M. E., Watson, E. E., & Payne, R. J. (2023). Exploiting Chemical Protein Synthesis to Study the Role of Tyrosine Sulfation on Anticoagulants from Hematophagous Organisms. Accounts of Chemical Research, 56(19), 2688-2699.
    DOI Scopus5 Europe PMC2
    2022 Watson, E. E., & Winssinger, N. (2022). Synthesis of Protein-Oligonucleotide Conjugates. Biomolecules, 12(10), 1523.
    DOI Scopus6 WoS1 Europe PMC3
    2022 Dowman, L. J., Kulkarni, S. S., Alegre-Requena, J. V., Giltrap, A. M., Norman, A. R., Sharma, A., . . . Payne, R. J. (2022). Site-selective photocatalytic functionalization of peptides and proteins at selenocysteine. Nature Communications, 13(1), 1-12.
    DOI Scopus16 Europe PMC6
    2022 Watson, E. E., Russo, F., Moreau, D., & Winssinger, N. (2022). Optochemical Control of Therapeutic Agents through Photocatalyzed Isomerization. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 61(28), 1-8.
    DOI Scopus9 WoS3 Europe PMC5
    2022 Watson, E. E., Russo, F., Moreau, D., & Winssinger, N. (2022). Optochemical Control of Therapeutic Agents through Photocatalyzed Isomerization. Angewandte Chemie, 134(28), 1-8.
    DOI
    2022 Watson, E. E., Russo, F., Moreau, D., & Winssinger, N. (2022). Titelbild: Optochemical Control of Therapeutic Agents through Photocatalyzed Isomerization (Angew. Chem. 28/2022). Angewandte Chemie, 134(28).
    DOI
    2022 Kulkarni, S. S., Watson, E. E., Maxwell, J. W. C., Niederacher, G., Johansen‐Leete, J., Huhmann, S., . . . Payne, R. J. (2022). Expressed Protein Selenoester Ligation. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 61(20), e202200163-1-e202200163-6.
    DOI Scopus22 WoS6 Europe PMC13
    2022 Watson, E. E., & Winssinger, N. (2022). Biosupramolecular networks: Taking inspiration from nature to create powerful synthetic platforms. Current Opinion in Chemical Biology, 66, 1-8.
    DOI Scopus4 WoS3
    2022 Watson, E. E., Russo, F., Moreau, D., & Winssinger, N. (2022). Cover Picture: Optochemical Control of Therapeutic Agents through Photocatalyzed Isomerization (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 28/2022). Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 61(28).
    DOI
    2021 Watson, E. E., Angerani, S., Sabale, P. M., & Winssinger, N. (2021). Biosupramolecular Systems: Integrating Cues into Responses. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 143(12), 4467-4482.
    DOI Scopus27 Europe PMC10
    2021 Agten, S. M., Watson, E. E., Ripoll‐Rozada, J., Dowman, L. J., Wu, M. C. L., Alwis, I., . . . Payne, R. J. (2021). Back Cover: Potent Trivalent Inhibitors of Thrombin through Hybridization of Salivary Sulfopeptides from Hematophagous Arthropods (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 10/2021). Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 60(10), 5570.
    DOI
    2021 Agten, S. M., Watson, E. E., Ripoll‐Rozada, J., Dowman, L. J., Wu, M. C. L., Alwis, I., . . . Payne, R. J. (2021). Rücktitelbild: Potent Trivalent Inhibitors of Thrombin through Hybridization of Salivary Sulfopeptides from Hematophagous Arthropods (Angew. Chem. 10/2021). Angewandte Chemie, 133(10), 5632.
    DOI
    2021 Agten, S. M., Watson, E. E., Ripoll‐Rozada, J., Dowman, L. J., Wu, M. C. L., Alwis, I., . . . Payne, R. J. (2021). Potent Trivalent Inhibitors of Thrombin through Hybridization of Salivary Sulfopeptides from Hematophagous Arthropods. Angewandte Chemie, 133(10), 5408-5416.
    DOI
    2021 Agten, S. M., Watson, E. E., Ripoll‐Rozada, J., Dowman, L. J., Wu, M. C. L., Alwis, I., . . . Payne, R. J. (2021). Potent Trivalent Inhibitors of Thrombin through Hybridization of Salivary Sulfopeptides from Hematophagous Arthropods. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 60(10), 5348-5356.
    DOI Scopus12 WoS8 Europe PMC5
    2021 Liu, W., Watson, E. E., & Winssinger, N. (2021). Photocatalysis in Chemical Biology: Extending the Scope of Optochemical Control and Towards New Frontiers in Semisynthetic Bioconjugates and Biocatalysis. Helvetica Chimica Acta, 104(12), 14 pages.
    DOI Scopus8 WoS5
    2021 Duggan, N. M., Saez, N. J., Clayton, D., Budusan, E., Watson, E. E., Tucker, I. J., . . . Payne, R. J. (2021). Total Synthesis of the Spider-Venom Peptide Hi1a. Organic Letters, 23(21), 8375-8379.
    DOI Scopus10 Europe PMC4
    2020 Wang, X., Ashhurst, A. S., Dowman, L. J., Watson, E. E., Li, H. Y., Fairbanks, A. J., . . . Payne, R. J. (2020). Total Synthesis of Glycosylated Human Interferon-γ. Organic Letters, 22(17), 6863-6867.
    DOI Scopus22 Europe PMC5
    2019 Kulkarni, S. S., Watson, E. E., Premdjee, B., Conde-Frieboes, K. W., & Payne, R. J. (2019). Diselenide–selenoester ligation for chemical protein synthesis. Nature Protocols, 14(7), 2229-2257.
    DOI Scopus59 Europe PMC19
    2019 Watson, E. E., Ripoll-Rozada, J., Lee, A. C., Wu, M. C. L., Franck, C., Pasch, T., . . . Payne, R. J. (2019). Rapid assembly and profiling of an anticoagulant sulfoprotein library. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(28), 13873-13878.
    DOI Scopus24 WoS20 Europe PMC8
    2019 Pinto, M. F., Ripoll-Rozada, J., Ramos, H., Watson, E. E., Franck, C., Payne, R. J., . . . Martins, P. M. (2019). A simple linearization method unveils hidden enzymatic assay interferences. Biophysical Chemistry, 252, 106193.
    DOI Scopus7
    2018 Conibear, A. C., Watson, E. E., Payne, R. J., & Becker, C. F. W. (2018). Native chemical ligation in protein synthesis and semi-synthesis. Chemical Society Reviews, 47(24), 9046-9068.
    DOI Scopus236 WoS154 Europe PMC98
    2018 Watson, E. E., Liu, X., Thompson, R. E., Ripoll-Rozada, J., Wu, M., Alwis, I., . . . Payne, R. J. (2018). Mosquito-Derived Anophelin Sulfoproteins Are Potent Antithrombotics. ACS Central Science, 4(4), 468-476.
    DOI Scopus33
    2017 Tran, A. T., Watson, E. E., Pujari, V., Conroy, T., Dowman, L. J., Giltrap, A. M., . . . Payne, R. J. (2017). Sansanmycin natural product analogues as potent and selective anti-mycobacterials that inhibit lipid i biosynthesis. Nature Communications, 8(1), 9 pages.
    DOI Scopus45 WoS36 Europe PMC20
    2017 Hanna, C. C., Kulkarni, S. S., Watson, E. E., Premdjee, B., & Payne, R. J. (2017). Solid-phase synthesis of peptide selenoesters via a side-chain anchoring strategy. Chemical Communications, 53(39), 5424-5427.
    DOI Scopus30 WoS26 Europe PMC11
    2015 Manos-Turvey, A., Watson, E. E., Sykes, M. L., Jones, A. J., Baell, J. B., Kaiser, M., . . . Payne, R. J. (2015). Synthesis and evaluation of phenoxymethylbenzamide analogues as anti-trypanosomal agents. MedChemComm, 6(3), 403-406.
    DOI Scopus7 WoS6
    - Watson, E. E., & Payne, R. J. (n.d.). 4-Nitrophenylchloroformate. Unknown Journal, 1-5.
    DOI
  • Book Chapters

    Year Citation
    2021 Watson, E. E., Malins, L. R., & Payne, R. J. (2021). Expanding Native Chemical Ligation Methodology with Synthetic Amino Acid Derivatives. In A. Brik, P. Dawson, & L. Lei (Eds.), Total Chemical Synthesis of Proteins (pp. 119-159). Weinheim, Germany: Wiley.
    DOI Scopus3
  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2023 Co-Supervisor Investigating Selenium Speciation with HERFD-XAS Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Ms Ani Tania Baker
    2023 Principal Supervisor Developing new methods for drug release targeting cell surface receptor density. Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Maya Liza Doyle
    2023 Co-Supervisor Fundamental understanding of DNA triplex formation and its antigene properties to control gene expression Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Sarveenah R G Chandrasegaran
  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2024 - 2025 Co-Supervisor Biomimetic Synthesis of Natural Products Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Matthew Alexander Coleman
    2023 - 2024 Principal Supervisor Taking the Brakes Off Photocatalytic Drug Uncaging Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Liam Matthew Carson
  • Position: Lecturer
  • Email: emma.watson@adelaide.edu.au
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Badger, floor Second Floor
  • Room: 230
  • Org Unit: Chemistry

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