Rate My Professor Ian Liddle

Dr. Ian Liddle serves as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Otago, within the Division of Health Sciences. He completed his MSci in Drug Discovery at the University of Dundee in 2020, followed by a PhD in Chemistry at the University of Otago under the supervision of Dr. Andrea Vernall. His doctoral research centered on developing covalent chromenopyrazole chemical tools, allosteric modulators, and selective agonists for the cannabinoid type 2 receptor (CB2), contributing to advancements in G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) pharmacology and medicinal chemistry. Following his PhD, Liddle worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Otago, collaborating with Associate Professor Allan Gamble in the School of Pharmacy and Associate Professor Daniel Pletzer in Microbiology and Immunology, where he focused on antibiotic-peptide prodrugs to address drug resistance.

Liddle's research interests encompass receptor pharmacology, cell culture, molecular mechanisms of pharmacological action, small molecule drug discovery, pharmaceutical chemistry, and new drug development. Key publications from his work include 'Covalent cannabinoid receptor ligands – structural insight and selectivity challenges' (2022, RSC Medicinal Chemistry), co-authored with Michelle Glass, Joel D. A. Tyndall, and Andrea J. Vernall; 'Development of Chromenopyrazole-Based Selective Cannabinoid 2 Receptor Agonists' (2021); and contributions to 'Development of Covalent, Clickable Probes for Adenosine A1 Receptor' (2021). He has received the University of Otago Doctoral Scholarship and the 2024 Innovation Jump Start Award from Medicines New Zealand for his project 'Development of PROTAC-antibiotics to mediate targeted protein degradation in drug resistant bacteria.' Liddle presented his PhD research at the 2022 Otago Medical School Research Symposium and is scheduled to give a seminar in the Microbiology and Immunology department on 24 November 2025. His expertise supports innovative approaches in combating antibiotic resistance and GPCR-targeted therapies. In 2026, he will transition to a postdoctoral position in the Cockroft Group at the University of Edinburgh, synthesizing ribosome binding compounds.