Dr Jill Barber MA, PhD, MA, DPhil, MRSC CChem, LGM(ICCF)

The research group has four main foci.

• Novel drugs of the erythromycin group.  We are currently seeking to overcome the two main barriers to compliance with erythromycin – the vile taste, and the gut motilide activity.
• Stable isotope chemistry and biology.  Our interests include the production and uses of deuteriated proteins and drugs, and the physiological effects of D₂O on living organisms.
• The factors that influence student success on undergraduate programmes, especially Pharmacy programmes.
• Proteomics on the Wilde side

Among our most significant achievements was to demonstrate that Erythromycin B, an old, inexpensive, and almost forgotten drug, has many of the properties of the modern macrolide antibiotics. Some of this work is described in Mordi et al, 2000 and Bhadra et al, 2005.

The research group is multinational and is a hotbed of interfaith co-operation and understanding. The techniques we use include: NMR spectroscopy, synthetic organic chemistry, isotopic labelling, protein engineering and expression, protein chemistry, simple microbiology and molecular modelling. Postgraduate students are therefore able to choose which techniques they wish to learn, and research projects can be tailored to their requirements within the overall programme.

During 2005-2006 I am on internal sabbatical in the Michael Barber Centre for Mass Spectrometry, School of Chemistry, working with Professor Simon Gaskell. (web link to the Michael Barber Centre here). The main focus of work at the Michael Barber Centre is Proteomics, the understanding of the huge number and range of proteins that are expressed by a cell under any given set of conditions. My particular interest is in proteins expressed in more than one part of eukaryotic cells, but produced by a single gene. These proteins contribute to our understanding of how our rather small genomes lead to us being different from one another and also from giraffes and bananas. We call these proteins the Oscars (from the Ballard of Reading Gaol, “For he who lives more lives than one, more deaths than one must die.”).

Biochemistry and Chemistry (especially spectroscopy).

I also have a significant role in curriculum development, implementing recommendations arising from my research project on student success.

Jill Barber attended a South London comprehensive school, and resolved at the age of 12 to study chemistry at Cambridge. She realised this ambition six years later, at a time when one in seven students and one in 10 chemistry students was a woman, and most of the others had attended public schools. She completed undergraduate studies in Cambridge followed by a PhD in Bioorganic Chemistry under the supervision of Professor Jim Staunton FRS. She settled in Manchester after a five-year tour of some of the oldest universities in Europe, where she learned a certain amount of biochemistry, German and 16th century choral music. Jill was appointed senior Lecturer in Pharmacy in 1993.

Jill Barber has lectured recently in Malaysia, New Zealand, Slovenia, France Croatia, Estonia and various parts of the UK. She has collaborators in Estonia, Germany and Croatia. She is the UK representative on the European Deuteriation Facility Committee.
Outside the University, she is a keen chess player, representing England in Correspondence Chess, and managing the Beaver Road Primary School Chess Teams and the Greater Manchester Under 11 Girls Team.

Administration:

• Undergraduate Admissions Tutor 2001-2005
• Chair of the School Board 2001-2005

• 2005 - LGM (Ladies Grandmaster, International Correspondence Chess Federation)
• 1999 - ILM(ICCF) (International Ladies Master (International Correspondence Chess Federation)
• 1986 - MRSC CChem
• 1984 - MA, DPhil - University of Oxford (by incorporation)
• 1981 - MA - University of Cambridge
• 1980 - PhD Bio-organic Chemistry - University of Cambridge
• 1977 - BA(Hons) Natural Sciences - University of Cambridge