Fergus obtained a 1st class honours BA in Chemistry from Trinity College Dublin. Following this, he obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry entitled “Spectroscopic investigations into the excited-state process and reactivity of ruthenium(II) polypyridyl complexes” with Professor Thorfinnur Gunnlaugsson and Professor John Kelly at Trinity College. The focus of this Ph.D. research was how these properties of Ru(II) polypyridyl complexes can be exploited in the design of luminescent probes and light-activated anti-cancer agents.

Fergus then worked as a postdoctoral research with Dr. Seamas Donnelly in the Department of Medicine, where he synthesised small molecule inhibitors of the cytokine macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) for the treatment of lung diseases and assessed the effectiveness of nanoparticle formulations to target these inhibitors to the lung in aerosol therapies.

Fergus’s research within the group focused on the synthesis and testing of a panel of activity-based probes for deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs). Deregulation of DUBs has been implicated in disease such as cancer, neurodegeneration and inflammatory diseases so there is a considerable need for comprehensive tools to help in their study.