PhD Studentship: Molecular Resolution of Biomolecular Assembly by Combining Neutron Scattering and Coarse-grained Simulation

Closing Date: 1/11/2024

Eligibility: UK applicants only

Funding: EPSRC Doctoral Training Partnership Studentship offering the award of fees, together with a tax-free maintenance grant (currently £19,237 academic session 2024/25) for 3.5 years.

Lead Supervisor’s full name & email address Professor Lorna Dougan L.Dougan@leeds.ac.uk

Project summary

This PhD project opportunity is part of an exciting new collaboration between the ISIS neutron and muon facility in Oxfordshire and the University of Leeds to develop new tools for understanding the multiscale structure and hydration of biomolecules. The successful student will join a cohort of ISIS Facility Studentships and benefit from a rich programme of support both at the ISIS Facility and Leeds.

Background:

Nanoscale biological building blocks play a vital role in biological systems and can be assembled to create novel biomaterials for use in healthcare applications such as drug delivery and tissue engineering. To date, we have employed neutron diffraction and simulation based structural refinement to study the atomistic structure of small building blocks such as aqueous sugars and amino acids, providing rich information on biomolecule hydration and biomolecule interactions. A step change is urgently needed in our approach, to move to more realistic, larger molecules and higher concentrations. This progress will allow us to understand how hydration of a biomolecule can be used to control its self-assembly, or to undertake a multiscale investigation of the hydration and self-assembly for biomaterials. To achieve this, integration of coarse-grained molecular simulation into a structural refinement data analysis workflow is needed. This advancement will have a major impact for Biosciences and biomaterials for Healthcare applications.

Applicants to research degree programmes should normally have at least a first class or an upper second class British Bachelors Honours degree (or equivalent) in an appropriate discipline.

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