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About

Sven Ullrich portrait

Sven Ullrich grew up in Ludwigshafen, Germany, home to the world’s largest industrial chemical complex. He studied pharmacy at Heidelberg University, Germany, including a placement in Nancy, France, before receiving a DAAD PROMOS scholarship for a research stay at the Australian National University (ANU). Supported by an ANU International Ph.D. Scholarship, he remained in Australia to complete his doctorate in chemistry with Dr. Christoph Nitsche, which included a research stay in the lab of Dr. Ratmir Derda at the University of Alberta, Canada.

He is currently a Feodor Lynen Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, working with Dr. Hiroaki Suga at the University of Tokyo. His main research interests concern the chemical biology of constrained peptides and compact proteins as future therapeutics, especially in the context of display screenings.

His research was recognised with the Cornforth Medal and John Carver Award, the national and state Ph.D. prizes of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. He has won multiple poster and presentation prizes at national and international conferences, including a Dr. Elizabeth Schram Young Investigator Award at the American Peptide Symposium, and was named among the Future Leaders Top 100 by the CAS division of the American Chemical Society.

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Publications

23.
Ang, E.; Chang, J. S.; Huang, W.-E.; Ullrich, S.; Vinogradov, A. A.; Suga, H.;
“Elucidating leader peptide−enzyme dynamics in lactazole biosynthesis using mRNA display”
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2026, 148, X.
22.
Ullrich, S.*;
“Shaping the future of constrained peptides and compact proteins in drug discovery”
Aust. J. Chem., 2025, 78, CH25122.
21.
Ullrich, S.;‡ Philippe, G. J.-B.;‡ Li, C. Y.;‡ Suga, H;
“Rational design and selection of next-generation cyclotide drugs using the knotted cyclic peptide scaffold MCoTI-II”
Aust. J. Chem., 2025, 78, CH25086.
20.
Ullrich, S.; Nitsche, C;
“Synthesis of bicyclic peptides using cyanopyridine-aminothiol click chemistry”
In: Methods in Molecular Biology; Springer, New York, USA, 2025, Ch. 2, 13–25.
19.
He, J.; Illingworth, H.; Ullrich, S.; Ghosh, P.; Ton, J.; Jackson, C. J.; Nitsche, C;
“Synthesis, screening and validation of cysteine-reactive fragments as Chikungunya virus protease inhibitors”
Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett., 2025, 122, 130176.
18.
Ullrich, S.;‡ Kumaresan, S.;‡ Rahman, M. G.; Panda, B.; Morewood, R.; Nitsche, C;
“Assembling branched and macrocyclic peptides on proteins”
Chem. Commun., 2025, 61, 3009–3012.
17.
Davies, L. J.; Ghosh, P.; Siryer, S; Ullrich, S.; Nitsche, C;
“Peptide–bismuth tricycles: Maximizing stability by constraint”
Chem. Eur. J., 2025, 31, e202500064.
16.
Ullrich, S.; Nitsche, C;
“4-Fluoro-2,6-dicyanopyridine”
In: Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis; Wiley, Hoboken, USA, 2025.
15.
Ullrich, S.;*, ‡ Panda, B.;‡ Somathilake, U.; Lawes, D. J.; Nitsche, C.;*
“Non-symmetric cysteine stapling in native peptides and proteins”
Chem. Commun., 2025, 61, 933–936.
14.
Ullrich, S.;‡ Ghosh, P.;‡ Shang, M.; Siryer, S.; Kumaresan, S.; Panda, B.; Davies, L. J.; Somathilake, U.; Patel, A. P.; Nitsche, C;
“Synthesis and stability studies of constrained peptide–antimony bicycles”
Aust. J. Chem., 2024, 77, CH24094.
13.
Ullrich, S.;‡ Somathilake, U.;‡ Shang, M.; Nitsche, C;
“Phage-encoded bismuth bicycles enable instant access to targeted bioactive peptides”
Commun. Chem., 2024, 7, 143.
12.
Harrison, K.; Carlos, P.; Ullrich, S.; Aggarwal, A.; Johansen-Leete, J.; Sasi, V. M.; Barter, I.; Maxwell, J.; Bedding, M.; Larance, M.; Turville, S.; Norman, A.; Jackson, C.; Payne, R. J;
“Exploiting hydrophobic amino acid scanning to develop cyclic peptide inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease with antiviral activity”
Chem. Eur. J., 2024, 30, e202401606.
11.
Ullrich, S.; Nitsche, C;
“A RaPID response to SARS-CoV-2”
Isr. J. Chem., 2024, 64, e202300170.
10.
Ullrich, S.;* Nitsche, C.;*
“Bicyclic peptides: Paving the road for therapeutics of the future”
Pept. Sci., 2024, 116, e24326.
9.
Ekanayake, K. B.; Mahawaththa, M. C.; Qianzhu, H.; Abdelkader, E. H.; George, J.; Ullrich, S.; Murphy, R. B.; Fry, S. E.; Johansen-Leete, J; Payne, R. J.; Nitsche, C.; Huber, T.; Otting, G;
“Probing ligand binding sites on large proteins by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of genetically encoded non-canonical amino acids”
J. Med. Chem., 2023, 66, 5289–5304.
8.
Sasi, V. M.;‡ Ullrich, S.;‡ Ton, J.; Fry, S.E; Johansen-Leete, J.; Payne, R. J.; Nitsche, C.; Jackson, C. J;
“Predicting antiviral resistance mutations in SARS-CoV-2 main protease with computational and experimental screening”
Biochemistry, 2022, 61, 2495–2505.
7.
Ullrich, S.; Nitsche, C;
“SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease: Structure, function and inhibition”
ChemBioChem, 2022, 23, e202200327.
6.
Mekkattu Tharayil, S.; Mahawaththa, M. C.; Feintuch, A.; Maleckis, A.; Ullrich, S.; Morewood, R.; Maxwell, M. J.; Huber, T; Nitsche, C.; Goldfarb, D.; Otting, G;
“Site-selective generation of lanthanoid binding sites on proteins using 4-fluoro-2,6-dicyanopyridine”
Magn. Reson., 2022, 3, 169–182.
5.
Ullrich, S.; George, J.; Coram, A. E.; Morewood, R.; Nitsche, C;
“Biocompatible and selective generation of bicyclic peptides”
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2022, 61, e202208400.
4.
Johansen-Leete, J.; Ullrich, S.; Fry, S. E.; Frkic, R.; Bedding, M. J.; Aggarwal, A.; Ashhurst, A. S.; Ekanayake, K. B.; Mahawaththa, M. C.; Sasi, V. M.; Luedtke, S.; Ford, D. J.; O’Donoghue, A. J.; Passioura, T.; Larance, M.; Otting, G.; Turville, S.; Jackson, C. J.; Nitsche, C.; Payne, R. J;
“Antiviral cyclic peptides targeting the main protease of SARS-CoV-2”
Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 3826–3836.
3.
Ullrich, S.; Ekanayake, K. B.; Otting, G.; Nitsche, C;
“Main protease mutants of SARS-CoV-2 variants remain susceptible to nirmatrelvir”
Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett., 2022, 62, 128629.
2.
Ullrich, S.; Sasi, V. M.; Mahawaththa, M. C., Ekanayake, K. B.; Morewood, R.; George, J.; Shuttleworth, L.; Zhang, X.; Whitefield, C.; Otting, G.; Jackson, C.; Nitsche, C;
“Challenges of short substrate analogues as SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors”
Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett., 2021, 50, 128333.
1.
Ullrich, S.; Nitsche, C;
“The SARS-CoV-2 main protease as drug target”
Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett., 2020, 30, 127377.