【博士奖学金】最新PhD招生和奖学金信息

文章来源：曼汉教育发布时间：2022-11-24 15:12:46 浏览次数：次

Lung cancer discovery biomarker using nanoparticles and microcantilever sensors as enrichment tool

Technological University Dublin > Graduate Research School Office

Supervisor：Dr Catherine Grogan

Applications Deadline:Friday, November 11, 2022

Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

Project Description

Glycosylation is a post-translation modification occurring for all proteins where glycans are enzymatically bound to the protein backbone with a specific order and composition. Under chronic diseases, proteins can carry altered glycan structures and detecting these changes using biomarkers will allow the early disease discovery. As blood plasma or serum are complex, identifying these biomarkers requires isolating the proteins of interest, an expensive and not always practical process. This study tackles these challenges by synthesising magnetic nanoparticles functionalised with biomolecules with high-affinity tags for a rapid and efficient isolation of selective protein biomarker, evaluating whether the glycan structures alter in a lung cancer cohort. The project intends to determine the glycans-nanoparticles interactions and their biomarker abilities. Our group showed that, by functionalising their surfaces, microcantilever sensors (MCS) can detect chemical and biological targets, offering advantages as label-free, high-sensitivity, quick response time, and real-time monitoring of surface reactions. Here, the MCS will be used as transducers to selectively identify the biomarkers presence, as their surfaces will be selectively functionalised with glycan-binding proteins (lectins) with high-selectivity towards specific glycan structure. Therefore, the project will allow the development of a new platform of discovery biomarker and novel biomarker assays with medical diagnostics potential.

The student will be registered in Technological University Dublin and will be supervised by Dr. Catherine Grogan and Dr. George Amarandei from School of Physics, Clinical and Optometric Sciences. The project is highly interdisciplinary and it is designed as a collaboration with Dr. Marco Monopoli in Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Prof. Roberto Raiteri in University of Genoa, Italy. As the project involves performing research in the laboratories of the above-mentioned institutions, disponibility to travel (when required) is needed.

Student Requirements

Essential

We welcome applications from talented and motivated graduates with a Bachelor Degree (Level 8) with an award of 2.1 or above (or equivalent) or with an MSc in a related discipline with Physics, (Bio-)chemistry, Bio-medical engineering, Nanoscience, Nanotechnology, Forensic Science etc.

For non-native English speakers a good command of English in line with the TU Dublin English requirements is needed

Graduates of MSc programmes taught in English in the above mentioned or related disciplines are also in-line with these requirements).

Desirable

Highly motivated persons with a desire to discover new knowledge and genuine interest in an interdisciplinary project between physics, chemistry and biology are welcomed.

Creativity and ability to work with a high degree of independence

Training and/or laboratory experience in chemistry, biosensors, atomic force microscopy, nanoparticle synthesis, spectroscopy is a plus.

Good interpersonal and collaborative skills, commitment to work in diverse and multicultural groups

Disponibility (and/or legal ability) to travel within the EU.

Funding Notes

Funding Agency: TU Dublin Scholarship ProgrammeStudent Stipend per annum: €18,500Materials & Travel Budget per annum: €2,600Duration of Funding: 48 months

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Understanding the Role of Extracellular Vesicle/Exosome Transport in the Visual System

Cardiff University > Cardiff School of Optometry & Vision Sciences

Supervisor：Dr B Mead, Prof Aled Clayton, Prof James Uney

Applications Deadline:Monday, December 05, 2022

Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

About the Project

Cellular communication has typically been understood as cells secreting messenger proteins, known as cytokines and growth factors, which bind to receptors on recipient cells and elicit their desired effect. A great deal of research over the last 50 years into treatments for disease has also been trying to modulate these signals, inhibiting, altering, or increasing them. A new signalling mechanism has recently been discovered, and due to its novelty, is still poorly understood. Along with cytokines/growth factors, cells also secrete extracellular vesicles (EVs), which include exosomes and microvesicles.

These membrane‐bound particles contain huge numbers of proteins as well as genetic material in the form of RNA (mRNA and miRNA). While their existence has been known for many years, only recently have EVs been effectively shown to be able to deliver their cargo into other cells, with those recipient cells able to utilize said cargo. Importantly, this mRNA forms the blueprint for new protein synthesis whereas the miRNA acts in opposition, inhibiting protein synthesis. Cells can therefore regulate the gene expression and ultimately, the protein make‐up of recipient cells via the secretion of EVs.

Due to our poor understanding of this process, this project seeks to better understand the role this signalling mechanism plays within the normal physiology of the eye. The eye is an easily accessible tissue, making it a highly amenable model to study EV communication. EVs have been implicated in disease and this includes detrimental factors that further the pathogenesis as well as potential therapies. Not enough data exists on their normal function within the healthy body and eye, making these implications difficult to study.

This project begins by isolating/analyzing EVs (from rodent and human retinal cells) including their size, numbers and cargo. This cargo includes their mRNA, miRNA, and proteins. Since every cell releases different types of EVs, it will be important to identify which retinal cells are releasing which EVs and track where they are going in the eye including their ultimate destination. Human retina will be generated from embryonic stem cell lines and will serve as a useful comparison to ensure results are applicable to human physiology. We will also determine what happens in the eye as we begin inhibiting the release of EVs or the packaging of specific cargo, allowing us to ascribe specific functions to EVs. It is also necessary to analyse the target retinal cells and better understand what changes occur when an EV delivers its cargo.

Our aim as the SWBio DTP is to support students from a range of backgrounds and circumstances. Where needed, we will work with you to take into consideration reasonable project adaptations (for example to support caring responsibilities, disabilities, other significant personal circumstances) as well as flexible working and part‐time study requests, to enable greater access to a PhD. All our supervisors support us with this aim, so please feel comfortable in discussing further with the listed PhD project supervisor to see what is feasible.

Techniques

· Cell culture of rodent and human stem cells as well as primary retinal cells

· RNA isolation and sequencing

· Isolation of exosomes and characterization using NanoSight and Western Blot

· Embryonic stem cell culture and retinal differentiation.

This project offers the opportunity for the student to learn all of the above techniques and more. They will work within the School of Optometry and have access to state-of-the-art facilities.

*This project utilizes live animals at some later stages of the workplan. Prospective students should be comfortable in using animal models.

**Students must pass a 2nd interview with the funders to be awarded the position.

Funding Notes

This project is fully funded through the BBSRC, as part of the SWBio Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP).

Targeting subcellular proteins and processes with designed peptides

University of Bristol > School of Biochemistry

Supervisor：Prof DN Woolfson, Prof P Verkade, Dr M Dodding

Applications Deadline:Monday, December 05, 2022

Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

About the Project

Most if not all biological processes depend on protein‐protein interactions (PPIs). Thus, a general ability to target, disrupt, or augment PPIs would have wide utility both in fundamental cell biology and biomedical applications. A relatively straightforward and widespread PPI is the alpha‐helical coiled coil (CC). CCs are assemblies of 2 or more alpha helices that form rope‐like structures.

Although CCs come in many different forms we understand the sequence‐to‐structure relationships of CCs sufficiently to design new CCs from scratch (Woolfson J Mol Biol 433, ARTN: 167160 (2021)). A challenge for this field is to apply this understanding to real‐life applications. This project proposal will address this by designing synthetic peptides that enter eukaryotic cells and target endogenous CC proteins. In this way, it will develop new reagents for pinpointing proteins of interest in cells for high‐resolution in situ structural biology, and for altering the functions of the targeted proteins in specific and predictable ways.

Targeting CCs has several advantages: First, we understand CC assembly sufficiently well to design synthetic or de novo coiled coils with confidence (Woolfson J Mol Biol 433, ARTN: 167160 (2021)). Second, stable and highly specific CCs can be made from short peptides (e.g., natural leucine zippers of ≈30 residues). This is an advantage for design as it renders CC peptides accessible by synthesis. Third, CCs are found widely throughout biology where they direct PPIs ranging from the leucine‐zipper transcription factors, through motor‐protein assembly, and to large structural assemblies like intermediate filaments (IFs) that contribute to cell shape and dynamics. Thus, with the right tools, there is considerable potential to target the “coiled‐coilome” for useful purposes. This project will leverage this understanding to design synthetic CCs that target natural CCs directly in living cells. It will exploit our recent discovery that synthetic CCs can be designed to penetrate human cells and bind cytoplasmic proteins tagged with a second complementary de novo CC (Rhys et al. Nature Chem Biol (2022), DOI: 10.1038/s41589‐022‐01076‐6). However, this new project will drop the need for de novo tags and target proteins of interest in cells directly. To do this, we will focus on endogenous proteins with predicted CC regions, which we estimate to be of the order ≈2000 proteins, and design cell‐penetrating peptides that bind to them directly. As a proof of concept, we will start with IF proteins that we have identified have a potential Achilles’ heel for us to target.

When applying to the University of Bristol, please use the following link: Start your application | Study at Bristol | University of Bristol. To choose the correct programme, please start to type 'South West' in the search box and the SWBio programme will appear. When making your application, please indicate the supervisor name and the project title on the form. Ensure you provide all supporting documents as per the programme admissions statement.

Funding Notes

Application deadline: Midnight, Monday 5 December 2022This is a 4 year PhD studentship fully funded by the BBSRC, SWBio Doctoral Training Partnership. Full details on the BBSRC SWBio DTP programme can be found at: View Website. This link includes information on projects available, eligibility requirements and the selection process.

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【博士奖学金】最新PhD招生和奖学金信息