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Supervisors: Prof A Porter, Prof M Zanda & Dr P Teismann
Targeting and delivering drugs across the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) is considered central to effective Central Nervous System (CNS) disease treatment. Although they possess the ability to bind to specific receptors proteins in the BBB, mAbs are large globular structures (in relative molecular terms) that are not conducive to tissue penetration, and do not lend themselves readily to multiple target formatting. However, a novel class of simple single chain antibodies isolated from the adaptive immune system of sharks (known as VNARs), overcome many of these physical limitations of mAbs, whilst retaining the high specificity and affinity for target. Their simple single chain structure makes them amenable to combinatorial therapy enabling more than one target or biological pathway to be modulated simultaneously. This is a huge driver in current drug design as the complexity of disease pathways and mechanisms are elucidated, the necessity to regulate multiple components becomes imperative. The aim of this project is to construct a VNAR bio-tool, amenable to fusion to other therapeutically relevant drugs, and capable of specifically binding and crossing the BBB to deliver its payload of drugs into the brain.
Applications are invited from outstanding UK and EU students, who hold or expect to gain a First or Upper Second-Class Honours degree or equivalent. Successful candidates will receive an annual stipend in line with RC-UK rates and payment of their tuition fees. Applicants should be available for interview on selected dates still to be determined during June-July 2012. This studentship will start on 1 October 2012.
SULSA is an SFC funded strategic research pooling partnership between the top six Scottish Universities in the Life Sciences: Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews and Strathclyde. The successful applicant will benefit from a high-quality training programme, travel and consumables budgets, as well as being integrated into the SULSA network of excellence. All aspects of the programme have been geared towards attaining the highest value in terms of scientific discovery, training and impact.
Funding Notes:
These PhD studentships are funded by MSD, The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and the University of Aberdeen. As part of an ongoing contribution to Scottish life sciences, MSD, a global healthcare leader, has given substantial monetary funding to the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) for distribution via SULSA to develop and deliver a high quality drug discovery research and training programme.
References:
Sriram et al, 2002. The FASEB J, 16(11) 1474; Teismann et al 2003. PNAS 100(9) 5473.