Rory Elston

Understanding and exploiting bacterial sugar transporters for increased production of prebiotics (CASE)

About me

I studied Biochemistry for my undergraduate degree at the University of Oxford, graduating with an MBiochem. In my final year project, completed in the Berks group, I investigated the entry mechanism of M13 filamentous phage into E. coli. I applied for my current project due to it offering a select opportunity to gain experience in both membrane protein biochemistry and bacterial metabolism. These represent areas that I cultivated a keen interest in during my undergraduate degree. The Thomas group at York offers an ideal environment in which to receive the training required to effectively perform research in the above fields.

My project

Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs) are a group of prebiotic sugar compounds manufactured through bacterial whole cell transformation. Sugar export represents a bottleneck for HMO production whilst bacterial sugar export transporters are poorly characterised. This project will study the function of sugar exporters with a view to improve HMO production yield, whilst also investigating the physiological roles the transporters play in bacterial metabolism.

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rory-elston-b9567b202/