PhD Projects

Our students are studying diverse areas of mechanistic biology in the following BBSRC strategic themes:

Advancing the frontiers of bioscience discovery:

1) Understanding the rules of life (formerly World Class Underpinning Bioscience)

2) Transformative technologies (formerly Exploiting New Ways of Working)

Tackling strategic challenges:

3) Bioscience for sustainable agriculture and food (formerly Agriculture and Food Security)

4) Bioscience for renewable resources and clean growth (formerly Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy)

These are the new BBSRC priority areas, taken from strategic document, “Forward look for UK Bioscience”, available on the BBSRC website:

https://bbsrc.ukri.org/documents/forward-look-for-uk-bioscience-pdf/

NameProject title
Isabelle Boon headshotIsabelle Boon

Unravelling the rules of outer membrane protein folding: Opportunities for the design of new antibacterial strategies
Katie Buttriss headshotKatie Buttriss

Structural studies of DNA repair required for human immune diversity using cryoEM 
Sabina Musial headshotSabina Musial

Assembly principles of the CO2 -fixing liquid-liquid phase separated organelle, the Pyrenoid
Jack Stenning headshotJack Stenning

Defining Estrogen Receptor Binding and Response Determinants at Single-Cell Resolution
Monika Gonka headshotMonika Gonka

Understanding haematopoietic stem cell fate choices by comparing distinct cellular states
Isaac Reynolds headshotIsaac Reynolds

Future-proofing our food: Priming plants to tolerate climate change
Abigail Walklett headshotAbigail Walklett

A 'sweet' new strategy for tackling superbugs: uniting synthetic and biochemical glycoscience for the inhibition of novel carbohydrate processing enzymes in multi-drug resistant bacteria
Charles CranstonCharles Cranston

Understanding the mechanisms leading to age-related hearing loss
Rebbekah Menday headshotRebbekah Menday

Structures and Mechanisms in killing C. difficile by Bacteriophages
Will Mulcrone headshotWilliam Mulcrone

Enzymatic repair of covalently crosslinked DNA
Vincent Chan headshotVincent Chan

Investigating ribosome specialization during cellular differentiation
Emily MagkourilouEmily Magkourilou

The role of mycorrhizal fungal networks in modulating plant symbioses with plant-parasitic nematodes
Jodie ArmandJodie Armand

Swinging Stomata: 4D capture of plant cell morphodynamics to inform on wall mechanics
Peter Chong 2020 starter headshotPeter Chong

CryoEM and biochemistry-led discovery of protein nanopores for biotechnology (CASE)
Patrick Hunter 2020 starter headshotPatrick Hunter

Developing next generation bioimaging/biophotonics tools to dissect the immunological synapse in single cells, one molecule at a time
Rory Elston headshot 2020 starterRory Elston

Understanding and exploiting bacterial sugar transporters for increased production of prebiotics (CASE)
Lydia Barber 2020 starter headshotLydia Barber

Understanding receptor clustering via multivalent ligand display (CASE)
Miles Deans 2020 starter headshotMiles Deans

Using machine learning to identify aggregation resistant biopharmaceuticals (CASE)
Albert Blandy headshot 2020 starterBertie Blandy

Dissecting mechanisms of mRNA translational control by specialised ribosomes
Blythe Wright 2020 starter headshotBlythe Wright

Mechanistic dissection of interplay between membrane traffic and apoptosis by mutations in the endosomal sorting regulatory protein Vps45
Ethan Redmond 2020 starter headshotEthan Redmond

The Circadian Clock in the Ageing Plant
Jodie Malcolm 2020 starter headshotJodie Malcolm

The selective control of tRNA gene transcription by steroid receptors in breast cancer
Barbara Radzikowska 2020 starter headshotBarbara Radzikowska

Daphniphyllum alkaloid (bio)synthesis
Timothy Johnston 2020 starter headshotTimothy Johnston

Role of Sulfiredoxin-1 in maintaining neuronal function and redox homeostasis
Nathan Innard 2020 starter headshotNathan Innard

Tracking anaerobic microbial community responses using a synthetic biology approach
Lewis Byrom 2020 starter headshotLewis Byrom

Structure and function of CIZ1/RNA complexes
Eleanor Briggs 2020 starter headshotEleanor Briggs

Fungal ß-glucan cell wall biosynthesis (CASE)
Emma White 2020 starter headshotEmma White

Improving water-use efficiency in wheat by modulating leaf structure (CASE)
Jessica Hurcum 2020 starter headshotJessica Hurcum

Novel approaches for the identification of allosteric inhibitors of high value therapeutic targets (CASE)
Polly Rouse 2020 starter headshotPollyanna Rouse

Elucidating the cellular targets of BoNT/X a potentially novel biopharmaceutical (CASE)
Derek Bell 2020 starter headshotDerek Bell

Activators of microbial enzymes for enhanced C capture and decreased pathogen populations in arable soils.
Victoria Hill 2020 starter headshotVictoria Hill

The Conformational Dynamics of Two-Way DNA Junctions: A common first step in aberrant DNA recognition?
Karolina Pyrzanowska 2020 starter headshotKarolina Pyrzanowska

Biochemical and structural basis of bacteriophage tail-associated hydrolases of Diabetic Foot Ulcer AMR pathogens
Katy Boswell 2020 starter headshotKaty Boswell

Characterizing the key enhancers during the initiation of Neuroblastoma using Human Pluripotent Stem Cells
Julian Adams 2020 starter headshotJulian Adams

How increases in night-time temperature reduce seed yields
Jack Riley 2020 starter headshotJack Riley

Regulatory potential of 3’UTR introns in stem cell differentiation
Adam Hannah-Parker 2020 starter headshotAdam Hannan-Parker

The role of DNA methylation in regulating the plant immune system over varying time scales
Aiden Johnson 2020 starter head shotAidan Johnson

Structure-guided design of functional probes for TRPC1/4/5 channels
Bethan Soanes 2020 starter headshotBethan Soanes

Epigenetic temperature sensing in plants
Katie Hardman 2020 starter headshotKatie Hardman

Elucidating the Structure and Function of Mechanosensitive G-protein Coupled Receptors
Michael Brigham 2020 starter headshotMichael Brigham

Exploring the role of standalone tailoring enzymes within natural product pathways
Jake Wheeler 2020 starter headshotJake Wheeler

Developing chemical probes of histidine phosphorylation in eukaryotes
Joseph McGrory 2020 starter headshotJoseph McGrory

Investigating the dynamics of the TP228 plasmid segregation system
Rowan Walters 2020 starter headshotRowan Walters

Using cryoEM and functional biophysics to understand the mycobacterial bd oxidase, a key enzyme in tuberculosis
Emma Campbell

Protein Engineering of Synthetic Enzyme Switches for the Next Generation of Infectious-Disease and Toxin Diagnostics (i-CASE)
Emily Bushby

Gestational and early-life dietary impacts on performance, welfare and gut-health in pigs
Gregory Billenness

Understanding Signalling Cascades using Affimer reagents (NPIF)
James Webster

Biological systems approach to de novo design (NPIF)
Hannah Spencer

Characterization of cell lines with engineered Golgi organization (NPIF)
Sarah Lock

Hydrolase discovery in the extremophile Galdieria (NPIF)