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.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
Ehmke Pohl (Primary Supervisor) | |
Katy Cornish (Student) |
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 |