About
David Craik is Professor and ARC Laureate Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) at the University of Queensland. He also serves as Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science (CIPPS) and Director of the Clive and Vera Ramaciotti Facility for Producing Pharmaceuticals in Plants — two of Australia's most significant structural investments in next-generation peptide drug development.
His research group of approximately 35 scientists — including PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and senior research fellows — focuses on the discovery, structural characterisation, and pharmaceutical application of cyclic peptides. Craik is widely regarded as the world's foremost authority on cyclotides: the family of ultra-stable, plant-derived cyclic peptides that are now the basis of multiple drug development programmes around the globe.
Beyond pure science, Craik has forged sustained industry partnerships with Pfizer, Roche, AstraZeneca, and Takeda, and his work has generated significant commercial outcomes including the Sero-X biopesticide — a product derived directly from cyclotide science that is now commercially available in Australia for protecting cotton crops.
Background & Career
Craik's scientific career spans more than four decades of peptide research. His interest in cyclic peptides was sparked by the story of cyclotide discovery itself: the observation in the 1960s that a Congo tea (made from the plant Oldenlandia affinis) was used by local healers to accelerate childbirth. That observation led, through decades of work by multiple research groups, to the identification of cyclotides as one of the largest protein families found in flowering plants.
Craik's group made the pivotal contribution of revealing the molecular architecture underlying cyclotide stability: the Cyclic Cystine Knot (CCK) motif — an arrangement of three interlocking disulfide bonds combined with a head-to-tail circular peptide backbone. This combination makes cyclotides among the most stable naturally-occurring proteins known, surviving conditions that destroy conventional peptides: boiling, acidic pH, prolonged exposure to proteolytic enzymes in the gut.
Recognising the therapeutic implications of this extraordinary stability, Craik developed the concept of using cyclotides as scaffolds for drug delivery — a technique called drug grafting, in which a therapeutic peptide sequence is inserted into one of the cyclotide's surface-exposed loops. The scaffold holds the therapeutic sequence in the correct three-dimensional orientation and protects it from degradation, enabling oral delivery of peptide drugs — a longstanding holy grail of pharmaceutical research.
Key Contributions
- Cyclic Cystine Knot (CCK) characterisation: Established cyclotides as a protein family and determined the structural basis of their extreme stability — the foundation on which all subsequent drug design work is built.
- Drug grafting technology: Pioneered the insertion of therapeutic peptide sequences into cyclotide scaffolds to enable oral delivery of biologics — now widely adopted by pharmaceutical industry partners.
- Plant pharming: Developed the concept and practical methods for producing therapeutic cyclotides in crop plants, advancing both commercial viability and scale-up potential.
- Conotoxin-cyclotide grafts: Engineered grafted cyclotides carrying conotoxin (cone snail venom) sequences that showed 100× greater potency than gabapentin in rodent pain models — a significant milestone for pain drug development.
- Anti-obesity and anti-cancer peptides in food crops: Produced anti-obesity peptide grafts in potatoes and anti-cancer peptide grafts in sunflower and soybean — demonstrating proof of concept for edible pharmaceutical delivery.
- Sero-X biopesticide: Led the development of Sero-X — the world's first commercial cyclotide product — in partnership with Innovate Ag. Sero-X exploits cyclotides' natural insecticidal properties to protect cotton crops and is commercially available in Australia.
Honours & Recognition
- Elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), 2021
- King's Birthday Honours, 2023
- ARC Laureate Fellowship
- Multiple national chemistry recognition awards
- Cited among the world's most highly cited researchers in chemistry and biochemistry
Prof. Craik's group has published more than 500 peer-reviewed papers and produced some of the most-cited papers in the cyclotide field. His work has attracted more than A$100 million in research funding from the ARC, NHMRC, and industry partners over his career, and his group has trained generations of cyclotide researchers now leading their own groups around the world.
Key Publications
Advances in Botanical Research, Vol. 76, 2015.
A comprehensive overview of cyclotide science — from discovery history through structural biology to pharmaceutical applications — written at the height of the field's expansion.
Chemical Reviews (ACS), 2019.
Landmark review synthesising decades of structural and functional research on cyclotides; one of the most-cited articles in the field.
Expert Reviews in Drug Discovery.
A detailed assessment of cyclotides as pharmaceutical scaffolds — covering grafting strategies, oral bioavailability data, and the path to clinical development.
Current Drug Discovery.
Focuses on the oral delivery dimension of cyclotide drug design, presenting the evidence base for gut stability and membrane penetration.