Dr Nial Wheate

Senior Lecturer (Pharmaceutical Chemistry)

Qualifications

BSc(Hons) PhD UNSW

Contact Details

Faculty of Pharmacy
University of Sydney
Pharmacy Building (A15)
Camperdown Campus
Sydney NSW

Telephone: +61 (0)2 9036 7647
E-mail:

Research Theme

Cancer

Class Coordination

Oncology and Immunology

Career Profile

After completing high school at Copland College in Canberra, Australia, he was appointed an officer in the Royal Australian Navy and attended the Australian Defence Force Academy, where he studied for a Bachelor of Science degree double majoring in chemistry, in 1997 with Class I honours for his degree. After a short appointment as a Visiting Military Scholar, Nial undertook a PhD under the supervision of Associate Professor J. Grant Collins within the School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences, at University College, University of New South Wales, with a thesis: Platinum Anticancer Drugs in 2001.

Over the next three years Dr Wheate was posted to the School of Air Navigation, RAAF Base East Sale, the Air Coordination and Policy Agency, the Joint Health Support Agency and the Sea Power Centre – Australia. He left the Navy in 2005, receiving the Australian Defence Medal in 2007. He was then appointed a Senior Fellow in the School of Biomedical and Health Sciences at the University of Western Sydney before appointment as a lecturer in medicinal chemistry in the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow,Scotland. Since January 2012 he is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Sydney in Australia.

Research Interests

Whole of pipeline discovery and development of platinum-based anticancer drugs including: design and synthesis, in vitro and in vivo screening, drug-DNA binding, nanoparticle based delivery, solid state chemistry and co-crystals, toxicology and pharmacokinetics, and dosage formulation.

The drug delivery application of cucurbit[n]urils and their host-guest complexes.

Publications

Thompson ISI Researcher ID No: A-9990-2008
ORCID Number: 0000-0002-0505-1363

2012
60. Nial J. Wheate, Nanoparticles: the future for platinum drugs or a research red herring? Nanomedicine, 2012, 7, 1285-1287. DOI: 10.2217/nnm.12.108 (Open access, available for free download)
59. Sarah D. Brown, Katherine D. Trotter, Oliver B. Sutcliffe, Jane A. Plumb, Bruce Waddell, Naomi E. B. Briggs and Nial J. Wheate, Combining aspects of the platinum anticancer drugs picoplatin and BBR3464 to synthesize a new family of sterically hindered dinuclear complexes; their synthesis, binding kinetics and cytotoxicity, Dalton Transactions, 2012, 41,11330-11339 DOI: 10.1039/C2DT31313H.
58. Rabbab Oun and Nial J. Wheate, Platinum anticancer drugs in Encyclopedia of Metalloproteins, Robert H. Kretsinger, Vladimir N. Uversky and Eugene A. Permyakov (Eds), Springer, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4614-1532-9.
57. Dhrumil Upadhyay, Santo Scalia, Robert Vogel, Nial Wheate, Rania O. Salama, Paul M. Young, Daniela Traini and Wojciech Chraznowski, Magnetised thermo responsive lipid vehicles for targeted and controlled lung drug delivery, Pharmaceutical Research, 2012, 29, 2456-2467 DOI: 10.1007/s11095-012-0774-9
56. Amelia J. Wagstaff, Sarah D. Brown, Megan R. Holden, Gemma E. Craig, Jane A. Plumb, Roisin E. Brown, Norbert Schreiter, Wojciech Chraznowski and Nial J. Wheate, Cisplatin drug delivery using gold-coated iron oxide nanoparticles for enhanced tumour targeting with external magnetic fields, Inorganica Chimica Acta, 2012, 393, 328-333 DOI: 10.1016/j.ica.2012.05.012 (Published in the special issue: Metals in Medicine)
55. Sarah D. Brown, Jane A. Plumb, Blair F. Johnston and Nial J. Wheate, Folding of dinuclear platinum anticancer complexes within the cavity of para-sulphonatocalix[4]arene, Inorganica Chimica Acta, 2012, 393, 182-186 DOI: 10.1016/j.ica.2012.04.033. (Published in the special issue: Metals in Medicine)
54. Jane A. Plumb, Balaji Venugopal, Rabbab Oun, Natividad Gomez-Roman, Yoshiyuki Kawazoe, Natarajan Sathiyamoorthy Venkataramanan and Nial J. Wheate, Cucurbit[7]uril encapsulated cisplatin overcomes cisplatin resistance via a pharmacokinetic effect, Metallomics, 2012, 4, 561-567. DOI:10.1039/C2MT20054F
53. Gemma E. Craig, Sarah D. Brown, Dimitrios A Lamprou, Duncan Graham and Nial J. Wheate, Cisplatin-tethered gold nanoparticles that exhibit enhanced reproducibility, drug loading, and stability: A step closer to pharmaceutical approval? Inorganic Chemistry, 2012, 51, 3490-3497. DOI: 10.1021/ic202197g.
52. Hassan Y. Alniss, Nahoum G. Anthony, Abedawn I. Khalaf, Simon P. Mackay, Colin J. Suckling, Roger D. Waigh, Nial J. Wheate, John A. Parkinson, Rationalising sequence selection by ligand assemblies in the DNA minor groove; The case for thiazotropsin A, Chemical Science, 2012, 3, 711-722. DOI: 10.1039/C2SC00630H.

2011
51.Using spectroscopic techniques to examine drug-DNA interactions, Matthew R. Hicks, Nikita U. Orkey, Michelle J. Pisani, J. Grant Collins, Nial J. Wheate and Janice R. Aldrich-Wright in Methods of studying nucleic acid/drug interactions, Meni Wanunu and Yitzhak Tor, CRC Press, 392 pp, ISBN: 9781439839737.
50. Gordon J. Kirkpatrick, Jane A. Plumb, Oliver B. Sutcliffe, David J. Flint and Nial J. Wheate, Evaluation of anionic half generation poly(amidoamine) dendrimers as delivery vehicles for the active component of the anticancer drug cisplatin, Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 2011, 105, 1115-1122. DOI: 10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2011.05.017
49. Shonagh Walker, Rabbab Oun, Fiona J. McInnes and Nial J. Wheate, The potential of cucurbit[n]urils in drug delivery, Israel Journal of Chemistry, 2011, 51, 616-624. DOI: 10.1002/ijch.201100033. (Invited article in the special themed issue coinciding with the 2nd International Conference on Cucurbiturils).

2010
48. Shonagh Walker, Rajdip Kaur, Fiona J. McInnes and Nial J. Wheate, Synthesis, processing and solid state excipient interactions of cucurbit[6]uril and its formulation into tablets for oral drug delivery,Molecular Pharmaceutics, 2010, 7, 2166-2172. DOI:10.1021/mp100191b.
47.Nial J. Wheate, Shonagh Walker, Gemma E. Craig and Rabbab Oun, The status of platinum anticancer drugs in the clinic and in clinical trials, Dalton Transactions, 2010, 39, 8113-8127. DOI: 10.1039/c0dt00292e.
46. Nial J. Wheate, Virendra Vora, Nahoum G. Anthony and Fiona J. McInnes, Host-guest complexes of the antituberculosis drugs pyrazinamide and isoniazid with cucurbit[7]uril, Journal of Inclusion Phenomena and Macrocyclic Chemistry , 2010, 68, 359-367. DOI: 10.1007/s10847-010-9795-3.
45.Sarah D. Brown, Paola Nativo, Jo-Ann Smith, David Stirling, Paul R. Edwards, Balaji Venugopal, David J. Flint, Jane A. Plumb, Duncan Graham and Nial J. Wheate, Gold nanoparticles for the improved anticancer drug delivery of the active component of oxaliplatin, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2010, 132, 4678-4684. DOI: 10.1021/ja908117a.
44. Fiona J. McInnes, Nahoum G. Anthony, Alan R. Kennedy and Nial J. Wheate, Solid state stabilisation of the orally delivered drugs atenolol, glibenclamide, memantine and paracetamol through their complexation with cucurbit[7]uril, Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 2010, 8, 765 - 773. DOI: 10.1039/b918372h.
43. Nial J. Wheate, Nilesh Patel and Oliver B. Sutcliffe, Microwave synthesis of cucurbit[n]urils, Future Medicinal Chemistry, 2010, 2, 301-306. DOI: 10.4155/FMC.09.118.
42. Sarah Brown, Gemma E. Craig, Duncan Graham and Nial J. Wheate, Nanoparticle for biomolecule delivery, International Patent, No. WO 2010/139942, December 2010, 39 pp.

2009
41. Anwen M. Krause-Heuer, Renate Grünert, Sybill Kühne, Magdalena Maruszak, Nial J. Wheate, Delphine Le Pevelen, Leanne R. Boag, Dianne M. Fisher, Jana Kasparkova, Jaroslav Malina, Patrick J. Bednarski, Viktor Brabec and Janice R. Aldrich-Wright, Studies into the mechanism of action of platinum(II) complexes with potent cytotoxicity in human cancer cells, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2009, 52, 5474-5484.
40. Alan R. Kennedy, Alastair J. Florence, Fiona J. McInnes and Nial J. Wheate, A chemical preformulation study of a host-guest complex of cucurbit[7]uril and a multinuclear platinum agent for enhanced anticancer drug delivery, Dalton Transactions, 2009, 7695-7700. DOI: 10.1039/b907917c.
39. Anwen M. Krause-Heuer, Nial J. Wheate, William S. Price and Janice Aldrich-Wright, Diffusion-based studies on the self-stacking and nanorod formation of platinum(II) intercalators, Chemical Communications, 2009, 1210-1212. DOI: 10.1039/b820584a.
38. Nial J. Wheate, Grainne M. Abbott, Rothewelle J. Tate, Carol J. Clements, RuAngelie Edrada-Ebel and Blair F. Johnston, Side-on binding of p-sulphonatocalix[4]arene to the dinuclear platinum complex trans-[{PtCl(NH₃)₂}₂µ-dpzm]²⁺ and its implications for anticancer drug delivery, Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 2009, 103, 3, 448-454. DOI: 10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2008.12.011.
37. Michelle J. Pisani, Nial J. Wheate, F. Richard Keene, Janice R. Aldrich-Wright and J. Grant Collins, Anionic PAMAM dendrimers as drug delivery vehicles for transition metal based anticancer drugs, Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 2009, 103, 3, 373-380. DOI: 10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2008.11.014.
36. Maxine P. Grant, Nial J. Wheate, and Janice R. Aldrich-Wright, Diffusion coefficient of cucurbit[n] urils (n = 6 or 7) at various concentrations, temperatures and pH, Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data, 2009, 54, 323-326. DOI: 10.1021/je800347u. (Published as part of the Robin H. Stokes Festschrift special issue)
35. Jane A. Plumb, Natividad Gomez-Roman, Balaji Venugopal and Nial J. Wheate, Drug delivery as a means of enhancing the activity of platinum compounds, Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research, 2009, 50, 151.
34. Gordon J. Kirkpatrick, Oliver B. Sutcliffe, David J. Flint and Nial J. Wheate, PAMAM dendrimers as delivery vehicles for platinum anticancer drugs, Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, 2009, 14, S125. DOI: 10.1007/s00775-009-0538-0

2008
33.Nial J. Wheate, Improving platinum(II)-based anticancer drug delivery using cucurbit[n]urils, Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 2008, 102, 12, 2060-2066. DOI: 10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2008.06.005. (Published as part of the Young Investigator Special Issue on "Inorganic Biochemistry - The Next Generation").
32. Anwen M. Krause-Heuer, Nial J. Wheate, Michael J. Tilby, David Pearson, Christopher J. Ottley, and Janice R. Aldrich-Wright, Substituted β-cyclodextrin and calix[4]arene as encapsulatory vehicles for platinum(II)-based DNA intercalators, Inorganic Chemistry, 2008, 47, 15, 6880-6888. DOI: 10.1021/ic800467c.
31. Sharon Kemp, Nial J. Wheate, Michelle J. Pisani, and Janice R. Aldrich-Wright, Degradation of bidentate coordinated platinum(II)-based DNA intercalators by reduced L-glutathione, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2008, 51, 9, 2787-2794. DOI: 10.1021/jm7016072.
30.Nial J. Wheate, P. G. Anil Kumar, Allan M. Torres, Janice R. Aldrich-Wright and William S. Price, Examination of cucurbit[7]uril and its host-guest complexes by diffusion NMR, Journal of Physical Chemistry B , 2008, 112, 8, 2311-2314. DOI: 10.1021/jp709847p.

2007
29.Nial J. Wheate, Robin I. Taleb, Anwen M. Krause-Heuer, Rebekah L. Cook, Shaoyu Wang, Vincent J. Higgins, and Janice R. Aldrich-Wright, Novel platinum(II)-based anticancer complexes and molecular hosts as their drug delivery vehicles, Dalton Transactions, 2007, 5055-5064. DOI: 10.1039/b7904973k. (Invited Paper).
28. Sharon Kemp, Nial J. Wheate, Frank H. Stootman and Janice R. Aldrich-Wright, The host-guest chemistry of proflavine with cucurbit[6,7,8]urils. Supramolecular Chemistry, 2007, 19, 7, 475-484. DOI: 10.1080/10610270601124019.
27. Sharon Kemp, Nial J. Wheate, Shaoyu Wang, Stephen F. Ralph, J. Grant Collins, Anthony I. Day, Vincent J. Higgins and Janice R. Aldrich-Wright, Encapsulation of platinum-based DNA intercalators within cucurbit[6,7,8]urils. Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, 2007, 7, 969. DOI: 10.1007/s0075-007-0269-z.
26. Sharon Kemp, Nial J. Wheate, Damian P. Buck, Marcia Nikic, J. Grant Collins and Janice R. Aldrich-Wright, The effect of ancillary ligand chirality and phenanthroline functional group substitution on the cytotoxicity of platinum-based metallointercalators. Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 2007, 101, 1049. DOI: 10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2007.04.009.
25. Nial J. Wheate, Craig R. Brodie, J. Grant Collins, Sharon Kemp and Janice R. Aldrich-Wright, DNA intercalators in cancer therapy: Organic and inorganic drugs and their spectroscopic tools of analysis, Mini Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry, 2007, 7, 627. (Invited Paper). DOI: 10.2174/138955707780859413.
24. Robin I. Taleb, David Jaramillo, Nial J. Wheate and Janice R. Aldrich-Wright, Synthesis of DNA sequence selective hairpin polyamide platinum anticancer agents. Chemistry - A European Journal, 2007, 13, 3177. DOI: 10.1002/chem.200601486.
23. Sarah J. Yousouf, Craig R. Brodie, Nial J. Wheate and Janice R. Aldrich-Wright, Synthesis of a heterodinuclear ruthenium(II)-platinum(II) complex linked by L-cysteine methyl ester. Polyhedron, 2007, 26, 318.
22. Janice R. Aldrich-Wright, Nial J. Wheate, Robin I. Taleb, Novel platinum(II)-based anticancer drugs: metallointercalators and DNA sequence specific agents Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, 2007, 12, S16. DOI: 10.1007/s00775-007-0255-5.
21. Marc van Holst, Craig R. Brodie, Nial J. Wheate and Janice R. Aldrich-Wright, Platinum metallointercalators in solid phase synthesis, Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, 2007, 12, S23. DOI: 10.1007/s00775-007-0255-5.
20. Anwen M. Krause-Heuer, Nial J. Wheate, Janice R. Aldrich, Use of molecular hosts in the drug delivery of platinum(II)-based DNA intercalating agents, Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, 2007, 12, S23. DOI: 10.1007/s00775-007-0255-5.
19. Elise P. Wright, Janice R. Aldrich-Wright, Nial J. Wheate, Ian W. Dawes, Vincent J. Higgins, Molecular mechanisms involved in the Saccharomyces cere visiae response to the novel anticancer platinum compound 56MESS, Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, 2007, 12, S51. DOI: 10.1007/s00775-007-0255-5

2006
18.Craig R. Brodie, Peter Turner, Nial J. Wheate and Janice R. Aldrich-Wright, (4,7-dimethyl-1,10- phenanthroline(ethylenediamine)platinum(II) dichloride tri(deuterium oxide) solvate. Acta Crystallographica Section E, 2006, E62, m3137. DOI: 10.1107/S1600536806043376.
17. David Jaramillo, Nial J. Wheate, Stephen F. Ralph, Warren A. Howard, Yitzak Tor and Janice R. Aldrich-Wright, Polyamide platinum anti-cancer complexes designed to target specific DNA sequences. Inorganic Chemistry, 2006, 45, 6004. DOI: 10.1021/ic060383n.
16. Nial J. Wheate, Cucurbit[n]uril - A new molecule in host-guest chemistry, Australian Journal of Chemistry, 2006, 59, 354.
15. David Jaramillo, Damian Buck, J. Grant Collins, Ronald R. Fenton, Frank H. Stootman, Nial J. Wheate and Janice R. Aldrich-Wright, Synthesis, characterisation and biological activity of chiral platinum(II) complexes. European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, 2006, 839. DOI: 10.1002/ejic.200500932
14. Nial J. Wheate, Anthony I. Day, Damien P. Buck and J. Grant Collins, Cucurbit[n]uril binding of platinum anti-cancer complexes. Dalton Transactions, 2006, 48, 451. DOI: 10.1039/b513197a.

2005
13.Nial J. Wheate, Platinum-based chemotherapy: Are we any closer to a cure for cancer? Chemistry in Australia, 2005, 72, 11.
12. Nial J. Wheate and J. Grant Collins, Multi-nuclear platinum drugs: A new paradigm in chemotherapy. Current Medicinal Chemistry - Anti-Cancer Agents, 2005, 5, 267. DOI: 10.2174/1568011053765994. (Invited Paper).
11. Nial J. Wheate, Anthony I. Day, Rodney J. Blanch and J. Grant Collins, Multi-nuclear metal complexes partially encapsulated by cucurbit[7-12]urils. 2005, International Patent, No. WO2005/068469, 63 pp.

2004
10. Nial J. Wheate, Anthony I. Day, Rodney J. Blanch, Alan P. Arnold, Carleen Cullinane and J. Grant Collins, Multi-nuclear platinum complexes encapsulated in cucurbit[n]uril as an approach to reduce toxicity in cancer treatment. Chemical Communications, 2004, 12, 1424. DOI: 10.1039/b404358h.
9.J. Grant Collins and Nial J. Wheate, Potential adenine and minor groove binding platinum complexes. Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 2004, 98, 1578.

2003
8.Nial J. Wheate, Ben J. Evison, Anthony J. Herlt, Don R. Phillips and J. Grant Collins, DNA binding of the anti-cancer platinum complex trans-[Pt(NH₃)₂Cl₂μ-dpzm]²⁺. Dalton Transactions, 2003, 18, 3486. DOI: 10.1039/b306417d.
7.Nial J. Wheate and J. Grant Collins, Multi-nuclear platinum complexes as anti-cancer drugs. Coordination Chemistry Reviews, 2003, 241, 133. DOI: 10.1016/S0010-8545(03)00050-X.

2001
6. Nial J. Wheate and J. Grant Collins, DNA minor groove binding by multi-nuclear platinum anti-cancer complexes, Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 2001, 86, 478.
5. Nial J. Wheate, Carleen Cullinane, Lorraine K. Webster and J. Grant Collins, Synthesis, cytotoxicity,cell uptake and DNA interstrand cross-linking of 4,4'-dipyrazolylmethane-linked multinuclear platinum anti-cancer complexes. Anti-Cancer Drug Design, 2001, 16, 91.
4. Nial J. Wheate, Suzanne M. Cutts, Don R. Phillips, Janice Aldrich-Wright and J. Grant Collins, The binding of [(en)Pt(μ-dpzm)₂Pt(en)]⁴⁺ to G/C-rich regions of DNA. Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 2001, 84, 119.
3. Nial J. Wheate, John A. Broomhead, J. Grant Collins and Anthony I. Day, Thermal rearrangement of n-substituted pyrazoles to 4,4'-dipyrazolylmethane and 1,1,2(4,4',4''-tripyrazolyl)ethane. Australian Journal of Chemistry, 2001, 54, 141. DOI: 10.1071/CH00151.

2000
2. Nial J. Wheate, Lorraine K. Webster, Craig R. Brodie and J. Grant Collins, Synthesis, DNA binding and cytotoxicity of isohelical DNA groove binding platinum complexes. Anti-Cancer Drug Design, 2000, 15, 313.
1. Nial J. Wheate and J. Grant Collins, A ¹H NMR study of the oligonucleotide binding of [(en)Pt(μ-dpzm)2Pt(en)]⁴⁺. Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 2000, 78, 313. DOI: 10.1016/S0162-0134(00)00059-3.

The University of Sydney - Faculty of Pharmacy