New enzymes from extremophilic environments for biotechnology

Lead Research Organisation: Durham University
Department Name: Chemistry

Abstract

This project is part of the Virus-X consortium funded by the European Union that employs sequence-based bioprospecting methodologies combining bioinformatics, functional analysis and structural biology to explore metagenomes of bacteriophages and other microorganisms in natural ecosystems and the encoded gene products (www.virus-X.eu). In this part of the consortium the student will characterise novel enzymes that have been discovered by other partners. After protein expression in E. coli and purification the student will employ a wide range of biochemical and biophysical methods to characterize the enzyme and explore their applications in molecular biology, biotechnology and synthetic biology. One key aspect of the work entails the X-ray crystal structure determination of selected target proteins. As part of the project the student will also contribute to the development of biophysical diffraction and scattering methods ranging from nano-crystallisation to electron diffraction and biological small-angle X-ray scattering. The ultimate goal is to characterise enzymes with novel functionalities that possess true innovation value.

Publications

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Studentship Projects

Project Reference Relationship Related To Start End Student Name
EP/R513039/1 30/09/2018 29/09/2023
2118603 Studentship EP/R513039/1 30/09/2018 30/03/2022 Katy Cornish
NE/W502972/1 31/03/2021 30/03/2022
2118603 Studentship NE/W502972/1 30/09/2018 30/03/2022 Katy Cornish