Margaret Brimble is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Auckland, New Zealand where her research program focuses on the synthesis of bioactive natural products and peptides as potential new medicines. She has published more than 460 papers, 60 reviews and is an inventor on >30 patents.

Margaret was awarded the 2016 Marsden Medal, 2012 RSNZ Rutherford (NZ’s top science prize), MacDiarmid and Hector Medals, 2011 Royal Australian Chemical Institute Adrien Albert Award, 2010 RSC Natural Products Award, 2007 L’Oreal-UNESCO Women in Science laureate in Materials Science for Asia-Pacific, 2015 IUPAC Distinguished Women in Chemistry Award and conferred the Queen’s Honour CNZM in 2012 for service to science.

Margaret is an Associate Editor for Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, Past-President of IUPAC Organic and Biomolecular Division III, the International Society for Heterocyclic Chemistry and the Rutherford Foundation RSNZ.  She discovered the first drug “trofinetide” to treat Rett Syndrome that is in phase III clinical trials with Neuren Pharmaceuticals. She also co-founded the “spin-out” company SapVax that is using her innovative peptide lipidation chemistry to generate self-adjuvanting cancer vaccines (see: https://sapvaxllc.com).