A PhD studentship is available in the groups of Dr Sarah Pike and Dr Anna Peacock (University of Birmingham) in the area of supramolecular and bioinorganic chemistry on the development of new foldamer-protein scaffolds for sensing and imaging applications.
Project Outline
Foldamers are synthetic helical oligomers that adopt stable secondary structures through mimicking the folding patterns of biological systems to generate structures of well-defined size and shape.1 Foldamers have been the subject of great interest due to their diverse range of applications in supramolecular chemistry. However, despite the importance of biomimetic foldamers and their known ability to mimic the simple natural helical topologies, there are very few reports on the development of higher order foldamer scaffolds that can mimic the sophisticated tertiary and quaternary topological structures found in biological systems. Given that the shape of the foldamer scaffold controls their (photo)physical properties and, in turn their function, accessing new to higher order topologies has the exciting potential to open up the field towards optimising existing applications or generating new applications with these novel structures (e.g., as sensors for biological analytes or medical diagnostics).
For further details see:
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/mibtp/pgstudy/phd_opportunities/structuralbiology/biomimeticscaffolds
The project requires a combination of organic chemistry synthesis and advanced analytical study to generate the new hybrid metallofoldamer-protein scaffolds and to assess their stability and performance as sensors and as luminescent or magnetic probes. This work will be carried out under the supervision of Drs Pike and Peacock in the Department of Chemistry.
Experimental Procedures and Training
The candidate will develop a range of standard and advanced organic and biological chemistry synthetic skills. The candidate will also develop a wide-range of analytical skills and techniques over the course of the PhD including, UV/Vis, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, infrared spectroscopy, and NMR spectroscopy (including 1H and 13C NMR and 2D-correlation techniques) and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The candidate will develop a multi-disciplinary skillset with expertise in organic, biological and inorganic chemistry design, synthesis and characterisation (including crucially elucidating 3-dimensional structure), as well as cultivating important keys skills relating to science communication and developing the ability to tackle tasks through problem-based thinking and analysis. Upon completion of the PhD, the candidate will be equipped with the necessary skills to pursue a future career in academia or industry.
Candidate requirements
The candidate must have an interest in organic/inorganic chemistry and/or supramolecular chemistry. The candidate must have a Upper 2:1 or First degree class (Masters level) in a chemical sciences subject.
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