Dr. Corcoran is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Chartered Biologist and currently Reader in Bioanalytical Chemistry in the School of Health, Sport and Bioscience at the University of East London. She leads the Medicines Research Group that focus on quality, safety and efficacy of pharmaceutical and phytomedicines.

Born and educated in Ireland, her career includes three years working on drug discovery at Pfizer Central Research, Sandwich and three years on adverse drug reactions at Imperial College Medical School, London. Her PhD, funded by Glaxo Group Research, developed novel NMR technologies for investigating drug metabolism.

In 2000, she joined Bruker BioSpin in California as Product Manager of NMR flow technologies and was lead applications scientist for the CryoFlowProbe, winning an R&D100 Award in 2003. Later that year she was awarded a prestigious C. W. Maplethorpe Research Fellowship to investigate adverse drug reactions of NSAIDs at the Department of Pharmacy, King's College London. Dr Corcoran's published expertise is in developing novel flow technologies to further drug discovery.

Current collaborations include the Department of Pharmacy, King's College London, The School of Chemical and Biological Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, The University of Cape Town and Imperial College London. Awarded MSc (Distinction) in Science entrepreneurship from Sir John Cass Business School in 2005.

• Director of the Medicines Research Group
• Programme Leader BSc(Hons) Forensic Science

• School Research Committee
• School Research Degrees sub-committee
• University Equality & Diversity Committee

• Biomedical chemistry,  identification of drug metabolites from biofluids in metabolism and toxicology studies, clinical diagnostics and metabolic profiling.

• Characterisation of bioactive drugs from ethnobotanical and microbial sources using chromatography and NMR spectroscopy.

• Development of analytical tools for reducing and refining the use of animals in pharmaceutical research.

• Applications of multiple-hyphenated NMR spectroscopy including high performance liquid chromatography coupled to NMR and mass spectrometry: LC-NMR-MS, capLC-NMR, LC-MS-SPE-NMR, and LC-cryoflow NMR spectroscopy.

• BSc (Hons) Forensic Science
• BSc (Hons) Toxicology
• BSc (Hons) Pharmacology
• BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science
• MSc Toxicology
• MSc Biotechnology and Management

Module Leader responsible for

• BS0004 Extended Chemistry
• BS2013 Biological Evidence
• BS3013 Forensic Analysis
• BS3014 Forensic pathology and serology
• BSM015 Forensic analysis
• BSM030 Planning Change

Also teach on

• BS2011 Practical and Employability skills
• BS2018 Introduction to Toxicology
• BS3033 Biochemical and Cellular toxicology
• BS3034 Applied Toxicology and the Environment
• BSM001 Bioinformatics
• BSM011 Toxicology

Post-doctoral Research Fellows

2012-2013 Frances Watkins

2012-2013 Dr Vianey Torres (Mexican Research Council - CONACyT funded)

2010-2011 Dr Oluwakemi Adebola

2010-2011 Dr Jiayu Gao

2007           Dr Alberto Sanchez-Medina

PhD Students

Dr  Oluwakemi Adebola (2009) ‘The relationship between probiotics, prebiotics and bile acids and the impact on gut health.'

Dr  Adewale Adetutu (2009) ‘Evaluation of wound healing activity of selected Nigerian plants.'

Dr Jiayu Gao (2010) ‘Investigation of the anti-tumour effects of Scutellaria barbata and Scutellaria baicalensis on human lung cancer cell lines.'

Dr Samuel Osei-Djarbeng (2010) ‘Bioactivity Guided Isolation and Characterisation of Antimicrobial and Wound healing Constituents of some Ghanaian Medical Plants.'

2010-present Frances Watkins 'Investigation of antimicrobials from native British plants used in 10th Century Anglo-Saxon wound-healing formulations.'

2011-present Oghenetaga Umukoro 'The effect of alcohol on G-protein gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster.'

2011-present Alexander Lyons 'Development of novel metabolomic techniques to standardise the identification of metabolic biomarkers allied to exercise, health and disease.'

Research publications

31. O Adebola, O Corcoran and WA Morgan. Protective effects of prebiotics inulin and lactulose from cytotoxicity and genotoxicity in human colon adenocarcinoma cells. 2013. Food Research International. 52:269-274.

30. SN Osei-Djarbeng, O Corcoran, SJ Cutler and RR Cutler. Antimicrobial and anti-quorum sensing activities of some Ghanaian medicinal plants. 2012. International Journal of Indigneous Medicinal Plants. 28:221-226.

29. F Watkins, B Pendry, A Sanchez-Medina and O Corcoran. Antimicrobial assays of three native British plants used in Anglo-Saxon medicine for wound healing formulations in 10th century England. 2012. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 144:408-415.

28. Pendry B, Hughes MJ, Kemp G, Nuhu H, Corcoran O and Sanchez-Medina A. Determination of silymarin in herbal tincture formulations using high performance liquid chromatography. Submitted to Journal of AOAC International, 2012.

27. F Watkins, B Pendry, O Corcoran and A Sanchez-Medina. Anglo-Saxon pharmacopoeia revisited: a potential treasure in drug discovery, Drug Discovery Today. 2011, 16: 23/24 1069-1075.

26. A Adetutu, WA Morgan and O. Corcoran. Ethnopharmacological survey and in vitro evaluation of medicinal plants used for wound-healing in South-western Nigeria. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2011. 137: 50-56.

25. J Gao, WA Morgan, A Sanchez-Medina and O Corcoran. The ethanol extract of Scutellaria baicalensis and its active compounds induce cell cycle arrest and apoptosis including upregulation of p53 and BAX in human lung cancer cells. Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, 2011, 254: 221-228.

24. A Adetutu, WA Morgan and O. Corcoran. Antibacterial, antioxidant and fibroblast growth stimulation activity for crude extracts of Bridelia ferruginea, a wound-healing plant of Nigeria. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2011, 133: 116-119.

23. S. Cobb, R Heaney, O Corcoran and SK Henderson-Begg. Using mobile phones to increase classroom interaction. AACE Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 2010 , 19(2): 147-157.

22. J Gao, H Zhao. PJ Hylands and O. Corcoran. Secondary metabolite mapping identifies Scutellaria inhibitors of human lung cancer cells. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 2010, 53:723-728.

21. S. Cobb, R Heaney, O Corcoran and S Henderson-Begg. The learning gains and student perceptions of a second life virtual lab. Bioscience Education, 2009, 13, http://www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/journal/vol13/beej-13-5.pdf

20. A Sanchez-Medina, PC Stevenson, S Habtemariam, LM Pena-Rodriguez, O Corcoran, TA Mallet and NC Veitch. Triterpenoid saponins from the cytotoxic root extract of Sideroxylon foetidissimum, subsp. gaumeri. Phytochemistry, 2009, 70:765-772.

19. A Sanchez-Medina, PC Stevenson, S Habtemariam, LM Pena-Rodriguez, O Corcoran, TA Mallet and NC Veitch. Triterpenoid saponins from the cytotoxic root extract of Sideroxylon foetidissimum, an endemic Yucatecan medicinal plant. Planta Medica, 2008, 74(9):908-909.   

18. J Gao, A Sanchez-Medina, BA Pendry, MJ Hughes, GP Webb and O Corcoran. Validation of a HPLC method for flavonoid biomarkers in skullcap (Scutellaria) and its use to illustrate wide variability in the quality of commercial tinctures. Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2008, 11 (1): 77-87.

17. A Sanchez-Medina, CJ Etheridge, GE Hawkes, PJ Hylands, BA Pendry, MJ Hughes and O Corcoran. Comparison of rosmarinic acid content in commerical tinctures produced from fresh and dried lemonbalm (Melissa officinalis).  Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2007, vol 10, no 4, 455-463.

16. LD Viet, PJ Houghton, B Forbes, O Corcoran and PJ Hylands.  Wound healing activity of Alocasia odora (Roxb.) Koch. Planta Medica, 2006,  72 (11): 991-991

15. JL Griffin and O Corcoran. High resolution magic angle spinning ¹³C NMR spectroscopy of cerebral tissue. Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine, 2005, 18, 51-56.

14. O Corcoran. Chapter 8,“NMR spectroscopy as a versatile analytical platform for toxicology research.” In Handbook of Toxicogenomics: A Strategic view of current research and applications, p161-181,published February 2005, Ed. J. Borlak, Wiley-VCH, Germany. ISBN-10: 3-527-30342-1.

13. LD Viet, PJ Hylands, PJ Houghton, B Forbes and O. Corcoran. Investigating the wound-healing activity of Alocasia odora (Roxb.) Koch. Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, 2005, 57, S73-74.

12. O. Corcoran and M. Spraul. “LC-NMR-MS in drug discovery.” Drug Discovery Today, 2003, vol. 8, no. 14, 624-631.

11. M. Spraul, A. S. Freund, R. E. Nast, R. S. Withers, W. E. Maas and O. Corcoran. “Advancing NMR sensitivity for LC-NMR-MS using a cryoflow probe: Application to the analysis of acetaminophen metabolites in urine.” Analytical Chemistry, 2003, vol. 75, no. 6, 1536-1541.

10. O. Corcoran, P. S. Wilkinson, M. Godejohann, U. Braumann, M. Hofmann and M. Spraul. “Advancing sensitivity for flow NMR spectroscopy: LC-SPE-NMR and capillary-scale LC-NMR.” American Laboratory, May 2002, 34, 18-21.

9. O. Corcoran, J. C. Lindon, R. Hall, I. M. Ismail and J. K. Nicholson. “The potential of ¹⁹F NMR spectroscopy for rapid screening of cell cultures for models of mammalian drug metabolism.” Analyst, 2001, vol. 126, no. 12, 2103-2016.

8. O. Corcoran, R. W. Mortensen, S. H. Hansen, J. Troke and J. K. Nicholson.  “HPLC/¹H NMR spectroscopic studies of the reactive alpha-1-O-acyl isomer formed during acyl migration of S-naproxen beta-1-O-acyl glucuronide. Chemical Research in Toxicology, 2001, vol. 14, no. 10, 1363-1370.

7. R. W. Mortensen, O. Corcoran, C. Cornett, U. G. Sidelmann, J. C. Lindon, J. K. Nicholson and S. H. Hansen. “S-naproxen-alpha-1-O-acyl glucuronide degradation kinetic studies by stopped-flow high-performance liquid chromatography-¹H NMR and high-performance liquid chromatography-UV.” Drug Metabolism and Disposition, 2001, vol. 29, no. 4, 375-380.

6. C. A. Daykin, O. Corcoran, S. H. Hansen, I. Bjornsdottir, C. Cornett, S. C. Connor, J. C. Lindon and J. K. Nicholson. “Application of directly coupled HPLC-NMR to separation and characterization of lipoproteins from human serum.” Analytical Chemistry, 2001, vol. 73, no. 6, 1084-1090.

5. R. W. Mortensen, O. Corcoran, C. Cornett, U. G. Sidelmann, J. Troke, J. C. Lindon, J. K. Nicholson and S. H. Hansen. “LC-¹H NMR used for the determination of the elution order of S-naproxen glucuronide isomers in two isocratic reversed-phase LC-systems. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 2001, vol. 24, no. 3, 477-485.

4. O. Corcoran, J. K. Nicholson, E. M. Lenz, F. Abou-Shakra, J. Castro-Perez, A. B. Sage and I. D. Wilson. “Directly coupled liquid chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight mass spectrometry for the identification of drug metabolites in urine: application to diclofenac using chlorine and sulfur detection.” Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 2000, vol. 14, no. 24, 2377-2384.

3. O. Corcoran, I. D. Wilson and J. K. Nicholson. “Rapid multi-component detection of fluorinated drug metabolites in whole urine from a “cassette” dose study using high resolution ¹⁹F NMR spectroscopy.” Analytical Communications, 1999, vol. 36, no. 7, 259-261.

2. O. Corcoran, M. Spraul, M. Hofmann, I. M. Ismail, J. C. Lindon and J. K. Nicholson. “750 MHz HPLC-NMR spectroscopic identification of rat microsomal metabolites of phenoxypyridines.” Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 1997, vol. 16, no. 3, 481-489.

1. Hylands R, Corcoran O, Jones BC and Smith DA. "Species differences in the in vivo metabolism of probe substrates for CYP2 enzymes." British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 1994, 37(5):489P-490P.

• Co-Editor, the Journal of Herbal Medicine
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, 2010.
• Visiting Research Fellow, School of Chemical and Biological Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London.
• Visiting Research Fellow, Department of Pharmacy, King's College London.
• Royal Society of Chemistry NMRDG Committee member 2003-2005.
• Member of the American Chemical Society (2002).
• Chartered Biologist, Society of Biology (elected Member 2000).