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
Joseph Lattimer

Studies on the replication of the non-primate hepacivirus (NPHV)
Adam Hyman

Mechanism of shear stress sensing
Alexander Evans

The energetics of bird flight: metabolic, mechanical and aerodynamic consequences of flying in formation
Patrick Knight

Investigating the mechanisms of aggregation associated with neurodegenerative olyglutamine (polyQ) diseases.
Konstantinos Drousiotis

Teaching bacteria to eat grass: genetic engineering of Escherichia coli for complete degradation and utilisation of Miscanthus hemicellulose
Daniel Upton

A Systems biology approach to bioenergy; Metabolic investigation of the filamentous fungi Aspergillus niger
Callum Pattrick

Engineering Escherichia coli to transport and efficiently metabolise ferulate
Simon Lesbriel

The assembly of the human TREX mRNA export complex
Joe Tyler

Analysis of a Novel Actin Nucleating Machinery regulating Membrane trafficking
Thomas Thirkell

Molecular basis of the benefits of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis for the nitrogen nutrition of crop plants
Keir Bailey

Acylation of Natural Products Derived from Biorefining
Robert Schiffrin

Role of Molecular Chaperones and the Bam Complex in Outer Membrane Protein Folding and Assembly
Iliyana Kaneva

Identification of kinase targets in the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans using immunoprecipitation and mass spectroscopy
Sam Amsbury

How do stomata work?
James Morby

Organisation and spectroscopic properties of native and nanofabricated arrays of photosynthetic complexes
Nathan Garnham

Identifying signaling responses governing synapse growth and function in aging neurons: defining responses to different cellular sources of oxidative stress
Tony Palmer

Towards enhancing crop yields on acid, phosphate-poor soils through an increased understanding of memechanism in aluminium-activated anion channels
Michael Wilson

Extreme muscle: a biophysical approach to explore and understand muscle proteins from extreme environments
Emma Lindsay

Improving Arsenic Tolerance in Rice
Gabriele Stakaiyte

Novel mechanisms to inhibit virus replication by targetting mRNA export pathways
Amanda McDonnell

Production and properties of composite quantum dots for solar energy and photonics applications.
Ryan Hartwell

Modelling axial polarity in the developing zebrafish ear
Janice Robottom

Development of split enzyme amplification systems for electronic label-free biosensors.
Haley Owen

The Development of Novel Herbicides
John Thomas

Mechanisms of adaptation of soil microbiota to pesticides
Nicola Oates

Mining composting communities for new lignocellulose mobilising enzymes
Richard Louden

How does the colonisation of roots by mycorrhizal fungi suppress infection by root parasitic weeds - a role for strigolactones
Gina Allison

Mechanisms of assembly and disassembly of the cytoskeletal protein ParF
Claudia Maclean

Computer and mathematical modelling of experimentally derived data of neuronal control of the autonomic nervous system
Jessica Haigh

Designing and shaping chemical tools to target motor neurones for experimental and therapeutic outcomes
Christopher Rowley

Construction, evolution, characterisation and optimisation of novel enzymes discovered through high-throughput mRNA display.
Katie Denby

Systems understanding of anaerobic respiration in Escherichia coli
Rebecca Gregory

The Key to a biofuel future: unravelling the mechanism of GH61