Researcher biography

Pritesh Prasad received his Bachelor of Science majoring in Chemistry and Physics (2007), and Master of Science in Chemistry (2011) from the University of the South Pacific (Fiji). In 2013 he obtained a PhD scholarship (International Postgraduate Research Scholarship) and joined Professor Rob Capon’s research group at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), the University of Queensland (Brisbane, Australia). His PhD research was in Natural Products Chemistry with focus on marine biodiversity and exploring bioactive chemical space. At IMB he received training in detection, isolation and characterisation of small molecules (natural products). During his PhD, Pritesh also worked as a Laboratory Demonstrator for the First Year Chemistry and IES Foundation at School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences (SCMB), UQ. In 2017, he further gained experience as a Technical Officer for the First Year Chemistry Laboratory Programs at SCMB. His current role as a Senior Research Technician at QLD Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS), UQ, continues to expand his laboratory and field based research, as well as develop administrative skills in research and consultancy projects.

His research capabilities include:

  • Passive sampler’s preparation/assembly and deployment in aqueous environment for trace organic analysis.
  • Extraction of passive samplers incorporating relevant QA/QC for trace organic analytes (pesticides, herbicides, PPCPs, OCPs, PAHs).
  • Extraction of waste water and water for PFAS analysis.
  • Isolation and purification of metabolites by employing various chromatography techniques (size exclusion, biotage, normal/reverse phase – analytical/semi-preparative and preparative HPLC).
  • Nuclear magnetic spectrometer data acquisition.
  • NMR (1H, 13C, 1H-15N HSQC, 1H-13C HSQC, COSY, 1H-13C HMBC, ROESY) data analysis for structural characterisation of small molecules.
  • MS/MS fragmentation analysis of small peptidic small molecules.
  • Chemical degradation studies (Marfey’s methods for amino acid analysis).
  • Few steps synthesis for structural confirmation.
  • Preparation/review of technical documents and manuscripts.