About the Project
There is an urgent need to develop and introduce new antimicrobial natural products to the clinic to combat the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified AMR as one of the greatest threats to global human health and we need novel strategies to discover new drug molecules and enhance production of existing molecules. Many of our clinically used antimicrobial drugs, such as antibiotics, are the product of complex biological factories found naturally in Streptomyces bacteria. These are currently made industrially via fermentation using strains that have been through successive rounds of mutagenesis to improve their production characteristics. To improve how these strains perform and to speed up the process of bringing new antibiotics to market genetic manipulation of the strains is often required.
The laboratory of Professor Paul Hoskisson at the University of Strathclyde is seeking a highly motivated and scientifically curious student to work on a project to develop new genetic tools and resources for industrial Streptomyces to help the development of current and future antibiotics. The project will involve training in molecular genetics, biochemistry bioinformatics, genome analysis, and bacterial physiology. The project will work closely with the pharmaceutical company GSK.
Entry Requirements: Applicants must have obtained, or expect to obtain A First Class/Upper Second Class Degree(2.i) or Masters degree in Molecular Microbiology, Microbiology, Genetics, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology or related disciplines
Please send a CV and cover letter, detailing your motivation to pursue this project to [Email Address Removed]
References
1. Schniete, J. K., Selem, N., Birke, A. S., Cruz-Morales, P., Hunter, I. S., Barona-Gómez, F., & Hoskisson, P. A. (2020). ActDES – a Curated Actinobacterial Database for Evolutionary Studies. Microbial Genomics (In press); https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.000498
2. Hoskisson, P. A., & Seipke, R. F., (2020) Cryptic or silent? The known unknowns, unknown knowns and unknown unknowns of secondary metabolism. mBio 11, e02642-20.
3. Schniete, J. K., Reumerman, R., Kerr, L., Tucker, N. P., Hunter, I. S., Herron, P. R., & Hoskisson, P. A. (2020). Differential transcription of expanded gene families in central carbon metabolism of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) Access Microbiology DOI 10.1099/acmi.0.000122.
4. Chevrette, M.G., Gutiérrez-García, K., Selem-Mojica, N., Aguilar-Martínez, C., Yañez-Olvera, A., Ramos-Aboites, H. E., Hoskisson, P. A., & Barona-Gómez, F. (2020). Evolutionary dynamics of natural product biosynthesis in bacteria. Natural Product Reports 37, 566-599.
5. Schniete, J. K., Cruz-Morales, P., Selem, N., Fernández-Martínez, L.T., Hunter, I. S., Barona-Gómez, F., & Hoskisson, P. A. (2018). Expanding primary metabolism helps generate the metabolic robustness to facilitate antibiotic biosynthesis in Streptomyces. mBio 9, e02283-17.
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