Prof S Piletsky, Dr E Piletska
No more applications being accepted
Competition Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
In this project we propose developing a novel assay for the measurement of the drugs of abuse and designer drugs which will be completely abiotic. This assay will not rely on natural antibodies and enzymes which would be replaced by magnetic and fluorescent molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles (MIP NPs).
The proposed assay will not require refrigeration or additional procedures such as washing, elution or adding reagents, it will have long shelf and operational life, multiplexing capabilities and thus be suitable for use in the field by police force. Currently there is a gap in the market for this type of devices, especially in relations to detecting benzodiazepines. The antibodies-based assays for these compounds have shown unacceptable level of false positives. In addition development of antibodies-based sensors for designer drugs is impractical due to long period required for the production and validation of relevant antibodies.
Our assay, if successful, could be used as a blueprint for the development of assays and sensors for other important target compounds and industry (MIP Diagnostics and assay manufacturers) will benefit strongly from its generic platform nature. The proposed assay will be based on a new format of the microtiter plate equipped with magnetic inserts which was developed by Leicester Biotechnology Group (GB1114231.2, and US 20150119274 A10).
This technology has already been shown to work at lab scale, therefore, we believe that it is a good time to translate this technology for industrial use and apply it for detection of the compound of practical importance. The target compound for the test-system will be selected from the list of priority targets provided by Scottish Police and Crime Unit (Diazepam, Etizolam, Diclazepam, Clonazolam, Phenazepam, U-47700, 5-Fluoro-AKB48, FUB-AMB, AB-FUMINACA, JWH-018, 5-Fluoro-ADB, 5-F-MDMB-PIINACA, MMB2201, Fentanyl). The Scottish police authorities have kindly agreed to test and validate developed assay.
The successful candidate will have:
• A degree in Chemistry related subject.
• Ideally student should have has experience with synthesis and characterisation of MIP nanoparticles.
• Student should be good with writing reports and presenting data.
• Student should be prepared to work with industrial partner developing his/her project
Applications
Apply here: https://www2.le.ac.uk/research-degrees/how-to-apply
In the funding section of the application please indicate you wish to be considered for Project EPSRC-CHE1-PILE
Funding Notes
• A full UK/EU fee waiver for 3 ½ years
• An annual tax free stipend of £14,777 (2018/19)
• A Research Training Support Grant to support project costs, fieldwork and conferences where applicable.
Studentships are open to UK Home / EU applicants that meet EPSRC Eligibility requirements : https://epsrc.ukri.org/skills/students/help/eligibility/
References
1. Smolinska-Kempisty K., Sheej Ahmad O., Guerreiro A., Karim K., Piletska E., Piletsky S. (2017). New potentiometric sensor based on molecularly imprinted nanoparticles for cocaine detection. Biosens. Bioelectron., 96, 49-54.
2. 2. Smolinska-Kempisty K., Guerreiro A., Canfarotta F., Caceres C., Whitcombe M., Piletsky S. (2016). A comparison of the performance of molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles for small molecule targets and antibodies in the ELISA format. Sci. Reports, 6, 37638.
3. Canfarotta F., Poma A., Guerreiro A., Piletsky A. (2016). Solid-phase synthesis of molecularly imprinted nanoparticles (MIP NPs) for diagnostic applications. Nature Protocols, 11, 443-455.
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