Jobs in Structural Biology and Related Fields

PhD Project: Structural and biophysical characterisation of novel plastic degrading enzymes

University of Portsmouth, University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom

Application deadline: 07 Feb 2020

Applications are invited for a fully-funded four year PhD studentship to commence in October 2020.

The PhD will be based at the Centre for Enzyme Innovation (CEI), and will be supervised by Dr Michael Zahn, Prof John McGeehan and Dr Andy Pickford.

Established in 2019, the Centre for Enzyme Innovation (CEI) focuses on the discovery, engineering and deployment of new enzymes to accelerate advances in the circular economy — with a focus on degradation of synthetic polymers and plastics and reuse of their component monomers.

The work will include:

• Identification of novel enzymes from diverse microbial and fungal sources
• Expression and purification of novel plastic degrading enzymes
• Crystallisation and data collection at the Diamond Light Source
• Biophysical characterisation of plastic degradation
• Biochemical analysis of enzyme kinetics
• Protein engineering to improve enzyme activity and thermostability for industrial applications
• Presentation of results at international conferences

Applications must be submitted by 7 February 2020.

For more information and to apply, click here.