Michael Oelgemoeller

Projects 7

Publications 18

Awards 0

Biography

Note

Michael Oelgemöller currently works at Fresenius University of Applied Science in Idstein, Germany, as a Professor in Organic Chemistry. He holds an adjunct position as Associate Professor in Organic Chemistry at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, and a guest Professorship at Ghent University in Ghent, Belgium.

Profile

Michael Oelgemöller is a leading expert in green (solar) and applied photochemistry. He received his Diploma from the University of Münster in 1995 and his PhD from the University of Cologne in 1999. He was a researcher at the ERATO-JST Photochirogenesis project in Osaka (1999-2001) and at Bayer CropScience Japan in Yuki (2001-2004).

From 2004-2008 he held a position as a Lecturer in Organic and Medicinal Chemistry at Dublin City University, Ireland. From 2009-2022 he was an Associate Professor in Organic Chemistry at James Cook University in Australia. In March 2022, he joined Fresenius University of Applied Science as a Professor in Organic Chemistry in Idstein, Germany.

Michael's research activities include synthetic organic photochemistry, solar photochemistry, the development of new photochemical synthesis tools and photochemical water treatment.

Research Opportunities

Michael's research group is very international and multidisciplinary. Potential internship, Honours, BSc, MSc, PhD and PostDoc candidates are welcomed to join us in either Germany, Belgium or Australia. Contact Michael for further details.

Research

Eradicate Insect-borne Diseases

Insect bites from mosquitos or sand-flies are widespread in the Tropics and cause diseases such as dengue, Ross-river fever or malaria. The Eradicate Insect-borne Diseases activities cover prophylaxis, treatment as well as cure. Following the ‘prevention is better than cure’ approach Michael's group is producing a potent natural insect repellent from local essential oils. At present, DEET is used as the most common ‘artificial’ insect repellent, but it is irritant, unpleasant in smell, expensive and known to damage surfaces and fabrics. For the treatment of insect bites, the team is producing anesthetics with reported activity levels higher than those of widely used ones. The synthesis of antimalarials from natural compounds is likewise investigated using artificial and natural sunlight.

Continuous-flow photochemistry – Lab & Light on a chip

Recently, flow photochemistry has emerged as a new synthesis tool that successfully combines the small dimensions of microreactors with continuous flow operation. Michael's group is investigating a series of homogeneous and heterogeneous photoreactions. The research also involves the construction of novel LED-driven microchips and their implementation in the synthesis of platform chemicals. Flexible and inexpensive microcapillary reactors have also been designed and fabricated as part of this research area. The group is a pioneer in this emerging technology and has developed a number of innovative microreactor systems for photochemical transformations in the past. My group is also collaborating with Vapourtec (UK) on applications of the advanced UV-150 flow photoreactor module.

Green Photochemistry – Synthesis of Commodity Chemicals with Sunlight

This research area investigates the large-scale, solar synthesis of fragrances, flavors and pharmaceutical precursors. Additionally, many starting materials are available from biomass, in particular agricultural waste material. Our research results thus help to reduce our dependency on fossil fuel derived chemicals. The group has recently realized the semi-technical syntheses of two commodity chemicals that are of particular interest for the agricultural industry. Michael's group operates a modern CPC reactor (ca. 70 L) equipped with a number of accessories and flatbed reactors (ca.10 L). These reactors can harvest diffuse and direct sunlight and are thus less dependent on weather conditions as concentrating systems, which makes them advantageous for operations in central Germany.

Medicinal Photochemistry – Synthesis and release of bioactive compounds

The neglect of organic photochemistry by the industrial R&D community has left a diverse structural pool of possible new lead structures almost completely unexplored. Michael's group has developed a series of useful photochemical transformations, which are applied to the synthesis of novel bioactive compounds. In particular, the photodecarboxylative (PDC) addition to phthalimides has been utilized in the synthesis of pharmacologically active alkyl- or arylmethylidene isoindolinones. Members of this important target family possess cardiovascular, anti-cancer and anesthetic properties. An alternative approach deals with photochemical macrocyclizations. The focus of this research area is to study photoinduced cyclization reactions of peptides and peptide analogues. An additional research area deals with the photochemical release of pharmaceuticals, in particular photodynamic therapy (PDT) anti-cancer drugs.

Photocatalytic water treatment

The presence of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment and their possible effects on living organisms is emerging as a global environmental concern. These persistent organic chemicals are only partially eliminated during conventional wastewater treatment and have been detected in the effluent of wastewater treatment plants. Novel, cost-efficient and climate-smart water treatment technologies are thus urgently needed. Target pharmaceutical analytes are selected based on prescription data and incorporate different pharmaceutical classes. The pharmaceuticals are then degraded by treatment with semiconductor particles and both UV-light and sunlight. An additional approach deals with the development of novel Integrated Photocatalytic Adsorbents (IPCAs), i.e. hybrid materials of conventional adsorbents and titanium dioxide. IPCAs combine the advantageous properties of both substances and merge them into novel ‘capture & destroy’ materials. Likewise, the team has developed porphyrin-TiO2 hybrid materials that overcome the poor absorption characteristics of the semiconductor within the solar spectrum.

Sustainable Aquaculture Water Treatment

Aquaculture is one of the fasted growing industries in the world. One of the major concerns of the aquacultural industry is biosecurity. Species of the genus Vibrio have been recognized as the most significant pathogens in aquaculture of marine fish and have been linked to food poisoning and mass mortality of breeding stock. The same microorganism currently limit closed life cycle farming of tropical rock lobster, which is regarded a lucrative aquaculture product. We are investigating Advanced Oxidation Process (AOPs) involving singlet oxygen as a promising ‘soft’ technique for water sterilization.