Prof J Lloyd, Dr B Van Dongen, Prof D Polya
No more applications being accepted
Competition Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
About the Project
Recent lab-based studies in Manchester have identified specialist subsurface bacteria that catalyse the reduction and mobilisation of arsenic from sediments, causing contamination of groundwaters with the toxic metalloid. This form of microbial metabolism (see figure left for mechanism) has a dramatic impact on the health of tens of millions worldwide. In this project, the latest genomic and post-genomic techniques will be used alongside mineralogical, geochemical and spectroscopic approaches on samples from SE Asian field sites and microcosm studies to understand the mechanism of reductive microbial arsenic mobilisation at a molecular scale.
As part of a major collaborative international programme with other leading arsenic groups, sediment cores and groundwaters will be obtained from aquifers with high arsenic concentrations, using state of the art sampling procedures and preserved for detailed analyses in Manchester. Molecular ecology studies will be conducted, including phylogenetic and functional profiling of microbial communities using 454 pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA or functional gene amplicons. The student will also develop and apply metagenomic, transcriptomic and proteomic approaches for analyses of these samples, to help elucidate the in situ mechanism of arsenic mobilization. Parallel mineralogical and geochemical analyses will be conducted on these samples, and in carefully-designed microcosm studies to support this work, and help build a comprehensive model for the mobilisation of arsenic in aquifer sediments. The student will work under the supervision of a team of geomicrobiologists, geochemists and mineralogists and will be part of a group of academic and technical staff, postdocs and PhD students working on subsurface microbiology and arsenic biogeochemistry at Manchester. They will be based in state of the art laboratories in the Williamson Research Centre for Molecular Environmental Science, and will also benefit from the excellent infrastructure for post-genomic science in the Faculty of Life Sciences. The student will generate a series of high impact publications and will be well prepared for a career in molecular environmental science.
Funding Notes
This project is one of a number that are in competition for funding from the NERC EAO DTP. Studentships will provide a stipend (currently £14,553 pa), training support fee and UK/EU tuition fees for 3.5 years.
All studentships are available to applicants who have been resident in the UK for 3 years or more and are eligible for home fee rates. Some studentships may be available to UK/EU nationals residing in the EU but outside the UK. Applicants with an International fee status are not eligible for funding.
References
(1) Islam, F.S., Gault, A.G., Boothman, C., Polya, D.A., Charnock, J.M., Chatterjee, D. and Lloyd, J.R. (2004) Role of metal-reducing bacteria in arsenic release from Bengal Delta sediments. Nature 430 68-71.
(2) Lear, G., Song, B., Gault, A.G., Polya, D.A. and J.R. Lloyd (2007) Molecular Analysis of Arsenate-Reducing Bacteria within Cambodian Sediments Following Amendment with Acetate. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 731041-104.
(3) Handley, K.M., McBeth, J.M., Charnock, J.M., Vaughan, D.J., Wincott, P.L., Polya, D.A. and Lloyd, J.R. (2013) Effect of iron redox transformations on arsenic solid-phase associations in an asenic-rich, ferruginous hydrothermal sediment. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 102 124–142
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