Rate My Professor Matthew Piggott

Matthew Piggott is an Associate Professor in the School of Molecular Sciences within the Faculty of Science at the University of Western Australia. He earned his BSc and PhD from the University of Western Australia, completing his doctoral research under the supervision of Professor Dieter Wege on the total synthesis of natural products. Following his PhD, Piggott held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Australian National University’s Research School of Chemistry, focusing on antibiotic drug discovery in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline. He then conducted a second postdoctoral position at Boston College with Professor T. Ross Kelly, working on the synthesis of a chemically-powered, unidirectional molecular motor. In 2003, he was appointed as a Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at the Australian National University. He joined the University of Western Australia in 2005 and has since advanced to his current position as Associate Professor.

Piggott’s research spans synthetic organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and chemical biology. His key projects include the development of MDMA-inspired compounds for Parkinson’s disease treatment, small molecule immunotherapies for cancer, reactive aldehyde trappers, medicinal chemistry targeting trypanosomiasis, total synthesis of natural products, and the design and synthesis of compounds featuring novel aromatic architectures. He has been recognized with several awards, including the CO-ADD Chemistry Prize in 2016, the Biota Award for Medicinal Chemistry in 2012 from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, and the Athel Beckwith Lectureship in 2008. Notable publications include “A New Era for PPARγ: Covalent Ligands and Therapeutic Applications” (Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2025, with J.L. King et al.), “Heterocyclic core modifications in trypanosomacidal 2-[(phenylheteroaryl)ethyl] ureas” (RSC Medicinal Chemistry, 2025, with A. Toynton et al.), “An Orthogonal Conductance Pathway in Spiropyrans for Well-Defined Electrosteric Switching Single-Molecule Junctions” (Small, 2024, with D. Jago et al.), “PPARG modulators” (Patent WO 2024/211969, 2024, with J. King et al.), and “Semisynthetic Studies Establish a Role for Conjugate Halide Exchange in the Formation of Chlorinated Pyrroloiminoquinones and Related Alkaloids” (Journal of Natural Products, 2024, with S. Sala et al.). His work has garnered over 1,800 citations and contributed to collaborative drug discovery efforts.