BBSRC EASTBIO PhD Programme: Regulation of mRNA capping in embryonic stem cells.

This 4 year PhD project is part of a competition funded by EASTBIO BBSRC Doctoral Training Partnership http://www.eastscotbiodtp.ac.uk/how-apply-0. This opportunity is open to UK and EU nationals.

Applicants should apply by completing the EASTBIO application form (downloadable from the EASTBIO website) and e-mail to [Email Address Removed]. Candidates should also include their academic transcripts and ensure that they ask their referees to send completed references to [Email Address Removed]. Applicants may wish to explain their motivation for joining the EASTBIO training programme.

Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent cells derived from early embryos that retain the ability to differentiate into all somatic cells. Pluripotency is dependent on the expression of key pluripotency regulators. On receiving signals to differentiate, gene expression profiles are reshaped to repress pluripotency factors and to express the proteins required of the new cell lineage. Our focus is on understanding how cellular signalling pathways regulate the mRNA cap,a structure added to transcripts which is critical for gene expression. The student will investigate how cellular signalling pathways influence the mRNA capping enzymes during differentiation and pluripotency. The mRNA cap recruits protein complexes which mediate processing and translation initiation. We have recently found that formation of the mRNA cap is regulated during neural differentiation of embryonic stem cells which co-ordinately represses pluripotency genes and upregulates neural genes.

The PhD project would be to investigate how the mRNA cap is regulated by signalling pathwaysduring different differentiation programmes in human and mouse embryonic stem cells, and the impact that this has on gene expression and cell physiology.The student will be culturing and differentiating embryonic stem cells, performing genome editing, and analysing transcription and translation using next generation sequencing and mass spectrometry.

The student will work within the laboratories of Prof Cowling in the Centre for Gene Expression and Dr Findlay in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit at the University of Dundee.