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/

	Name	Project title
	Adam Hannan-Parker University of Sheffield 2020	The role of DNA methylation in regulating the plant immune system over varying time scales
	Aidan Johnson University of Leeds 2020	Structure-guided design of functional probes for TRPC1/4/5 channels
	Bethan Soanes University of Leeds 2020	Epigenetic temperature sensing in plants
	Katie Hardman University of Leeds 2020	Elucidating the Structure and Function of Mechanosensitive G-protein Coupled Receptors
	Michael Brigham University of Leeds 2020	Exploring the role of standalone tailoring enzymes within natural product pathways
	Jake Wheeler University of Leeds 2020	Developing chemical probes of histidine phosphorylation in eukaryotes
	Joseph McGrory University of York 2020	Investigating the dynamics of the TP228 plasmid segregation system
	Rowan Walters University of York 2020	Using cryoEM and functional biophysics to understand the mycobacterial bd oxidase, a key enzyme in tuberculosis
	Emma Campbell University of Leeds 2019	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 University of Leeds 2017	Understanding Signalling Cascades using Affimer reagents (NPIF)
	James Webster University of Sheffield 2017	Biological systems approach to de novo design (NPIF)
	Hannah Spencer University of York 2017	Characterization of cell lines with engineered Golgi organization (NPIF)
	Sarah Lock University of York 2017	Hydrolase discovery in the extremophile Galdieria (NPIF)
	Danielle Lambert University of Sheffield 2017	Investigating the mechanisms of non-classical gastrin signalling in tumour development (NPIF)
	Ryan Hubball University of Leeds 2017	Designing a chemical 'toolbox' for the efficient inhibition of metalloenzymes (NPIF)
	Dorothy Hawkins University of York 2017	Structural characterisation of a bacteriophage DNA packaging motor using Cryo-Electron Microscopy (NPIF)
	Claire Brown University of York 2017	Influence of microbial community on nitrogen use efficiency in agriculture (NPIF)
	Anzar Asad University of Sheffield 2017	GPCR drug discovery using the zebrafish model (NPIF)
	Evelyn Smith University of Sheffield 2018	Analysis of neuronal kinesin-1 activation dynamics in response to cargo binding
	Kate Loveday University of Leeds 2018	The role of chikungunya virus nsP1 protein in virus replication
	Cheuk Yan (Joshua) Lee University of York 2018	Probing the epitranscriptome with nanopore sequencing (iCASE)
	Carmen Apostol University of Sheffield 2018	Structural investigation of hnRNP proteins using Cryo-EM
	Hannah Fisher University of Sheffield 2018	The Structure and Function of Clostridia Spores
	James Pitman University of Sheffield 2019	From metabolic markers to mechanism of growth suppression: understanding the molecular physiology of sprouting in potato (i-CASE)
	Rhys Woodfin University of York 2019	Plant metabolism and remediation of the explosive and pollutant TNT
	Catriona Walker University of Leeds 2018	The roles of phytohormones in carpic dominance and floral arrest
	Laura Cowell University of York 2019	Transcriptional regulation by FGF in the switch from pluripotency to cell lineage commitment
	Orlagh Anderson University of York 2019	Engineering bacterial therapeutics with enhanced metabolic properties (i-CASE)
	Harry Pink University of York 2019	Gene editing and molecular breeding for fungal disease resistance in lettuce (i-CASE)
	Theo Issitt University of York 2019	Probing cellular responses to environmental and metabolic stress
	Reuben Ouanounou University of Sheffield 2018	Biochemical, biophysical and structural characterisation of Fanconi anaemia nuclease 1. A structure-specific nuclease involved in interstrand crosslink repair.
	Emily Harrison University of Sheffield 2018	Investigating how reducing stomatal density in the C4 crop Maize influences drought tolerance and photosynthesis (iCASE)
	Ruth Thomas University of Sheffield 2018	SSA - Genetic and Drug Screening in DNA Repair Deficient Zebrafish for Novel Targets in the Treatment of Neurological Disease and Cancer
	Connor Hayward University of Leeds 2019	Defining picornaviral replication complexes by molecular and state-of-the-art imaging- Novel strategies for disease control
	Frederick Weaver University of Leeds 2019	Determining the role of molecular co-chaperones in virus infection: A novel antiviral approach
	Alina Capatina University of York 2019	Regulation of cellular metabolism and intercellular communication by sodium signalling
	Owen Laing University of Sheffield 2019	Molecular mechanisms underlying replicative stress and genome damage in pluripotent stem cells (i-CASE)
	Peter Daniels University of Sheffield 2019	Characterisation of the Rex1 ribonuclease in yeast and human cells
	Federica Pastorelli University of Sheffield 2019	1/ Characterization of cyclic electron flow around photosystem I in photosynthesis 2/ Super-resolution video rate imaging of photosynthetic membrane dynamics in plants and algae
	Megan Lovatt University of Leeds 2019	SSA Cryo-electron Tomography of Activated Mammalian Synapses
	Conor Scott University of York 2019	Mining the secretome of the lignocellulose degrading fungus Parascedosporium putredinis NO1 (i-CASE)
	Larra Trinidad University of Sheffield 2019	Epithelial morphogenesis: coordinating planar polarity and tissue mechanics
	Joseph Nabarro University of York 2019	Probing the dynamics, orientation and conformation of lipopolysaccharide in bacterial membranes through bio-orthogonal chemistry and single-molecule biophysics
	Jessica Davis University of Sheffield 2019	Structural characterization of the enterococcal polysaccharide antigen and analysis of its contribution to cell growth, division and antibiotic resistance
	Cara Wheeldon University of Leeds 2019	The role of root exudates in density-dependent growth responses in plants
	Quentin Levicky University of Sheffield 2019	Development of Debaryomyces hansenii as a robust host for production of high value fatty acid-based biochemicals.
	Katie Gelder University of Sheffield 2019	Investigating the role of phase separation in enhancer-dependent gene regulation
	Kyle Le Huray University of Leeds 2019	Investigation into the determinants of protein-lipid interactions using molecular dynamics simulations, machine learning and mass spectrometry
	Alexandra Holmes University of Leeds 2018	Investigating the Structure and Function of Membrane-Integral Pyrophosphatases