Dr S Huws, Prof Brendan Gilmore, Dr S Cochrane
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
Background and significance of research:
The global increase of multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria, combined with the decreasing number of novel and effective antibacterial agents being developed for the market, poses a serious global threat to human health. Urgency is required with respect to discovery and development of novel antibiotics, alongside antimicrobial stewardship and development of rapid tools to detect MDR bacteria. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), particularly cationic AMPs, are promising alternatives to currently available antibiotics, due to their broad spectrum activity against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria, and their rapid mode of action on the cytoplasmic membrane, which results in a decreased rate of resistance being developed by the targeted pathogens. However, synthetic generation of AMPs has produced very few if any viable AMPs for medical use, thus there is a need to further prospect from nature. Microbial communities offer a potential novel source of AMPs as although these microbes work symbiotically, they will also need to employ competitive behaviour on occasion for survival.
Research aims:
The aims of this project are to discover, characterise and develop novel antimicrobial peptides from a range of gastrointestinal tract microbiomes for treatment of MDR bacteria, in particular Acinetobacter baumannii. Already available ‘omic data sets will be computationally prospected for potential AMP candidates initially and this will be followed by laboratory characterisation (Please see https://www.nature.com/articles/s41522-017-0042-1 for information on the pipelines commonly employed within the group).
This project will be supervised by Dr Sharon Huws of the Institute for Global Food Security/School of Biological Sciences, Professor Brendan Gilmore of the School of Pharmacy, and Dr Stephen Cochrane of the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.
The successful applicant will register as a research student at Queen’s University School of Biological Sciences.
Funding Notes
This project is funded by the Department for the Economy (DfE). Only UK and EU students are eligible to apply. Full information on eligibility criteria is available from the DfE website: https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/department-economy-studentships
Academic requirements:
A 2.1 UK Honours degree (or equivalent) in a relevant subject is required.
Continue with Facebook
