Project Description
Antibiotics have transformed medical practice, increased life expectancy and, together with vaccination, led to the near eradication of many bacterial diseases (1). However, overuse, including in animals, has potentiated the emergence of resistant bacteria. Such bacteria now cause millions of infections annually, with thousands of lives lost at a societal cost of billions of dollars. Moreover, the occurrence of untreatable infections is increasingly common. This disturbing trend is an immediate threat to health in every region of the world; antibiotic-resistant bacteria have the potential to affect anyone, of any age, in any country. The multiple antibiotic resistance (mar) regulon, and homologous systems, are continually implicated (2). Briefly, the mar operon encodes a global gene regulatory system that controls expression of genetic determinants which confer antibiotic resistance. We hypothesise that the majority of targets for MarA, and the underlying molecular mechanisms of antibiotic resistance, are undefined. This project will extend our recent work on Escherichia coli (3). You will combine genomic tools with focused molecular biology to identify new mechanisms of antibiotic resistance, and new drug targets, in pathogenic bacteria.
For more information on Dr Grainger’s lab and research please visit: http://graingerlab.com/
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The School of Biosciences offers a number of UK Research Council (e.g. BBSRC, NERC) PhD studentships each year. Fully funded research council studentships are normally only available to UK nationals (or EU nationals resident in the UK) but part-funded studentships may be available to EU applicants resident outside of the UK. The deadline for applications is 6th January 2019.
Each year we also have a number of fully funded Darwin Trust Scholarships. These are provided by the Darwin Trust of Edinburgh and are for non-UK students wishing to undertake a PhD in the general area of Molecular Microbiology. The deadline for this scheme is also typically at the end of January each year.
Funding Notes
Project can be funded by the MIBTP-BBSRC training programme (UK and EU students) or a Darwin Trust scholarship (Worldwide). Please state in application which scheme you wish to be considered for. For MIBTP-BBSRC, you will need to fill in a University of Birmingham application AND the short notification form on the University of Warwick MIBTP portal (MIBTP is a doctoral training partnership between Warwick, Birmingham and Leicester).
Further details on the BBSRC MIBTP scheme are here: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/mibtp/index.aspx
Deadline: 6 January, 2019
Number of Studentships available: 30
Stipend: RCUK standard rate (plus travel allowance and laptop).
To check eligibility visit: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/mibtp/pgstudy/phd_opportunities/application/
References
1. Alekshun MN, Levy SB. (2007) Molecular mechanisms of antibacterial multidrug resistance. Cell. 128:1037-50.
2. Blair JM, Webber MA, Baylay AJ, Ogbolu DO, Piddock LJ. (2015) Molecular mechanisms of antibiotic resistance. Nat Rev Microbiol. 13:42-51.
3. Sharma P, Haycocks JRJ, Middlemiss AD, Kettles RA, Sellars LE, Ricci V, Piddock LJV, Grainger DC. (2017) The multiple antibiotic resistance operon of enteric bacteria controls DNA repair and outer membrane integrity. Nat Commun. 8:1444.
How good is research at University of Birmingham in Biological Sciences?
FTE Category A staff submitted: 42.80
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