Prof N Scrutton
Applications accepted all year round
Self-Funded PhD Students Only
About the Project
PhD applicants are invited to work in the group of Professor Nigel Scrutton in the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) in the area of ‘Synthetic Biology for Chemicals and Materials Biomanufacturing’. The project will focus on the development and use of industrial strains for the scaled biomanufacture of chemicals and materials and will be based in two Centres of Excellence in the MIB, i.e. SYNBIOCHEM Centre for Fine and Speciality Chemicals (www.synbiochem.co.uk) and the UK Future Biomanufacturing Research Hub (www.futurebrh.com). Applicants will have an interest in gaining expertise in the use of modern synthetic biology methods for microbial strain engineering, including automated assembly of metabolic pathways, high throughput analytics and the use of fermentation methods to produce and recover chemicals and materials. This is an excellent opportunity to train in a large and highly interdisciplinary research group using state of the art facilities for synthetic biology, metabolic engineering and scale up. Applicants with backgrounds and interests in biochemistry (or related bioscience degree) or chemistry are encouraged to apply.
The Scrutton laboratory is generally interested in gaining deeper understanding of biological catalysis and using this information to drive new applications. The group focuses on both fundamental studies of enzyme catalysis and translation of these findings into applications in industrial biocatalysis and biomanufacturing. Applicants would therefore receive a broad training in modern biological and chemical approaches to catalysis and microbial strain engineering relevant to programmes in synthetic biology and biomanufacturing for chemicals and materials production.
Candidates are expected to hold (or be about to obtain) a minimum upper second class honours degree (or the overseas equivalent) in a related area / subject. Candidates with experience in biological sciences (molecular/biochemistry) or with an interest in chemistry are encouraged to apply.
Contact for further Information:
Informal inquiries can be made to Professor Nigel Scrutton ([Email Address Removed]).
Further details of the Scrutton group activities are available at www.scruttonlab.com
Funding Notes
Applicants should have access to independent funding for their PhD studies.
For the academic year 2019-20, UK/EU tuition fees are £8,750 p.a., and International fees £25,500 per year.
References
1. An automated design-build-test-learn pipeline for enhanced microbial production of fine chemicals (2018). Carbonell et al Commun. Biol 1, 66
2. An automated pipeline for the screening of diverse monoterpene synthase libraries (2019). Leferink et al Sci Rep. In press.
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