Dr A Truman
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
About the Project
Bacteria have an incredible ability to make molecules with potent biological activities, and many of these compounds are indispensable in modern medicine for the treatment of various diseases. These medicines include antibiotics, antifungals, anti-inflammatories, antiparasitics and anti-cancer compounds. We therefore want to know how bacteria make these molecules so we can engineer their pathways to make new biologically active compounds and discover new pathways to other active compounds.
This studentship will build on prior work carried out in the Truman group (https://www.jic.ac.uk/directory/andrew-truman/) where we identified a series of natural products from actinomycete bacteria that can kill cancerous cells. The student will investigate the biosynthesis of these compounds and use this information to develop new versions of these molecules. The resulting anti-cancer activity of these new compounds will be assessed. This multidisciplinary project will be based in the laboratory of Dr Andrew Truman in the Department of Molecular Microbiology at the John Innes Centre, which has world-class facilities for bacterial genetics and natural product biosynthesis. Skills will be developed in enzymology, bacterial genetics, mass spectrometry and natural products chemistry (purification and structural elucidation by NMR). Applicants should have (or be about to receive) an honours degree in biochemistry, chemistry or microbiology (or a related discipline).
Pre-application enquiries can be made to Dr Andrew Truman (details in above web link).
For further information and to apply, please visit the ’How to Apply’ page on our website:
http://www.jic.ac.uk/training-careers/postgraduate-research/application-help-and-guidance/
Funding Notes
This project is awarded with a 4-year Royal Society PhD studentship. Tuition fees are covered for UK/EU rate only (£4,260.00 2018/9 rate). Students liable for international tuition fees will need to fund the difference between the UK/EU fee level and the international fee level (£18,350.00 2018/9 rate). A stipend will be provided for each year of the studentship (2018/9 rate is £14,777.00). Research training support funding is available.