Rate My Professor Craig Hutton

Craig A. Hutton is Professor in the School of Chemistry and Associate Dean (Infrastructure) in the Faculty of Science at the University of Melbourne, where he leads the Hutton Research Group within the Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute. He obtained his BSc(Hons) in 1989 and PhD in 1993 from the University of Adelaide. Following his PhD, he served as Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley from 1993 to 1995, and Australian Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne from 1995 to 1998. In 1998, he held the position of Research Scientist at CSIRO Molecular Science and Lecturer at the University of Sydney until 2003. He joined the University of Melbourne in 2003 as Senior Lecturer (2003–2009), advanced to Associate Professor (2010–2019), and has been Professor since 2020.

Professor Hutton's primary research interest is peptide chemistry, encompassing synthetic organic chemistry, peptide natural products, synthesis, and reaction development. The Hutton Group's expertise lies in amino acid, peptide, and protein chemistry, with projects focused on exploiting thioamide reactivity in peptide synthesis and functionalisation, radiolabelled amino acids and peptides for PET imaging of cancer, biologically active cyclic peptide natural products, cross-linked tyrosine derivatives in peptides and proteins, and organoboron chemistry. He has received Australian Research Council funding for initiatives such as New Synthetic Strategies to Small Cyclic Peptides, A New Direction in Peptide Synthesis: An N-to-C Approach Using Thioamides, and Biogenesis Inspired Total Synthesis of Natural Products. Key publications include Depsipeptide synthesis using a late-stage Ag(i)-promoted macrolactonisation of peptide-thioamides, Late-Stage Pd(II)-Catalyzed C(sp3)−H Functionalization of Peptides Directed by a Removable Backbone-Inserted Amidoxime Ether, Site Specific Preparation of N‐Glycosylated Peptides, and Introduction, Interconversion and Removal of Boron Protecting Groups. In 2022, he was awarded the Dean's Award for Graduate Research Supervision in Chemistry. Professor Hutton has presented seminars on thioamide reactivity in peptide synthesis at conferences including the American Peptide Society meeting and the 16th Australian Peptide Conference.