Synthesis and evaluation of water-soluble macrocycles for the recognition, differentiation and sensing of methyllysines

Fee Waiver Scholarships for MSc by Research
The outcome of this project will deliver synthetic receptors (‘artificial antibodies’) to directly quantify so-called post-translational modifications (PTMs), i.e. covalent changes in proteins after their biosynthesis. It will pave the way for a quicker, cheaper and more reliable method to detect changes in PTMs. The recent technique uses antibodies, which are rather problematic due to enormous costs arising from faulty antibodies. Moreover, most antibodies cannot penetrate cells. An important class of PTMs are methylated lysines, which play crucial roles in protein/protein interactions and cancer. The development of synthetic receptors for their discrimination are of high academic and commercial interest. This project concerns the detection post-translationally modified lysines in water, biologically related media and cells.

The day-to-day work includes organic synthesis, analytical characterization and molecular modelling studies of the macrocyclic hosts and respective guests. The candidate should have experience and interest in organic synthesis and have at least a basic knowledge of standard analytic procedures (NMR, MS, X-ray).