Prof Peter O'Connor, Prof S Perrier
Applications accepted all year round
Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
One EPSRC funded industrial CASE collaborative PhD scholarship is available from April 2016 in the group led by Professor Peter O'Connor on Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometry. The project is a collaborative industrial CASE award with Astra Zeneca, and with Prof. Sebastian Perrier in Warwick Chemistry. The project involves high resolution, detailed analysis of polymer-peptide conjugates made by Prof. Perrier’s research group using advanced Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR MS).
The FTICR MS instrument provides the highest possible resolution and mass accuracy, and also provides many types of fragmentation. Overall, this allows very detailed structural analysis of molecules which has been well explored for proteins and DNA, but less well studied for polymers and completely untested for polymer-peptide conjugates. In addition, we have a new technique called two dimensional FTICR which allows detailed structural information of all molecules in a complex mixture simultaneously and should provide particular, new structural information for block-copolymers and polymer conjgates. The technique was recently highlighted in an article in Analyst1, which showed that such complex mixtures can, in principle, be analyzed using this technique. The acquisition of the data is likely to be straightforward, and the processing of the data could be more difficult, but the technique is new enough and exciting enough, that anything we do is eminently publishable.
The PhD student will work primarily in the research group of Prof. O’Connor, doing advanced mass spectrometry, but will also attend group meetings in Prof. Perrier’s research group and will spend a few months working at Astra-Zeneca in Macclesfield working with our collaborator Dr. Anthony Bristow.
Funding Notes
Applicants should have (or be about to receive) an honours degree (at least II.1 or equivalent and a Master’s degree is preferred) in chemistry, engineering, or physics, and should have an interest in advanced instrumentation, polymer chemistry, peptide/protein mass spectrometry, and solving (bio) chemical projects with advanced analytical techniques. These studentships provide funding only for UK/EU students.
To enquire or visit our laboratories email : [Email Address Removed] Please see our websites for more details of the research area: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/chemistry/research/oconnor
For information on how to apply, and for our online application form, please see our website at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/chemistry/gstudy/
References
1. Simon, H. J.; van Agthoven, M. A.; Lam, P. Y.; Floris, F.; Chiron, L.; Delsuc, M. A.; Rolando, C.; Barrow, M. P.; O'Connor, P. B., Uncoiling collagen: a multidimensional mass spectrometry study. Analyst 2016, 141 (1), 157-165.