phd studentship: artificial metalloenzyme design with late transition metal active sites
University of Birmingham
Nonprofit organization, Browse similar opportunities
en
Nonprofit organization, Browse similar opportunities
This PhD project involves the rational design, preparation and assessment of artificial metalloenzymes. Nature’s catalysts, enzymes, have been perfected by evolution to perform reactions under mild conditions and with enviable asymmetric control and selectivity. However, the active sites of metalloenzymes are primarily restricted to first row transition metals, despite catalysis with heavier transition metals offering more diversity in terms of reactivity. This is primarily due to these heavier metals not being “biologically available”.
This PhD project will combine the advantages afforded by both the xenobiotic and the enzymatic catalytic worlds, so as to create new biotechnology for the efficient and catalytic synthesis of complex molecules. Xenobiotic catalytic sites will be engineered into increasingly complex and structured peptide and protein assemblies. This includes, but is not limited to de novo designed miniature artificial protein scaffolds. The resulting artificial metalloenzymes with xenobiotic active sites will be studied in asymmetric catalysis, and used to establish key structure-function relationships.
This is a multidisciplinary project incorporating elements of asymmetric chemical catalysis and synthetic biology. A successful candidate will join the groups supervised by Dr Paul Davies (p.w.davies@bham.ac.uk ) and Dr Anna Peacock (a.f.a.peacock@bham.ac.uk ). Alongside their other research programmes, the current artificial metalloenzyme team includes two postdoctoral research fellows and a PhD student. Please see the webpages below for more information:
- https://syncatdavies.wordpress.com/
- https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/chemistry/davies-paul.aspx
- https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/chemistry/peacock-anna.aspx
Funding Details
See https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/mibtp/index.aspx for funding details (UKRI level stipend and home fees) and entry requirements. MIBTP is open to international students. However, UKRI will only pay fees for international students up to UK tuition fee level and so International applicants would need to make up the difference (e.g. with an external scholarship). Candidates should have or be expected to achieve a 1st or high 2.1 degree classification in Chemistry, or a closely related degree topic, and will have prior research experience (e.g. an MSci/MChem project and/or industrial placements).
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