Phillip Lowe

Dr Phillip Lowe is an EPSRC Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews' School of Chemistry, focusing on enzymology, fluorine chemistry, and molecular microbiology. His work bridges biochemical mechanisms, synthetic biology, and drug design, with a strong emphasis on fluorinase enzymes and biofluorination pathways. Key research areas include antibiotic resistance mechanisms, halogenated natural products, and engineered microbial systems for fluorine incorporation.

Education & Affiliations: Research is conducted within the School of Chemistry at St Andrews, collaborating with institutions like the University of York and the University of Copenhagen. Lowe’s EPSRC fellowship supports interdisciplinary projects at the interface of chemistry and biology.

Research Interests: Fluorinase enzyme engineering, biofluorination in engineered bacteria, antibiotic tolerance in MRSA, design of olfactory receptor agonists, and halogenated nucleoside therapeutics. His work combines genetic circuit design, enzyme kinetics, and synthetic organic chemistry to address challenges in drug development and microbial biotechnology.

Publications Overview: Recent work explores MRSA antibiotic tolerance (Molecular Microbiology), fluorinase substrate specificity (ChemBioChem), and engineered Pseudomonas systems for biofluorination (Nature Communications). Themes include enzymatic halogen exchange, metabolic pathway engineering, and fluorine’s role in natural products.