Circadian regulation of gene expression and its application in synthetic biology

Many living organisms possess circadian clock - timing mechanism allowing them to adjust to day/night cycles. The simplest version of a clock is found in photosynthetic cyanobacteria - large group of industrially and ecologically important microorganisms.
We are going to investigate how circadian programme regulates gene expression in cyanobacteria. Our main goal will be to identify factors, which switch genes on/off at the level of transcription. Understanding of these fundamental principles is vital for implementation of circadian clock in synthetic biology. Ultimately, we aim to design elements of circadian control for synthetic biology applications in industrially relevant microorganisms.
This project is part of large consortium developing Portabolomics, http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/research/project/5355,
the innovative approach to synthetic biology, aiming at increasing an efficiency and flexibility of design of a new industrial applications.
The project will be based in Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology of Newcastle University (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/cbcb/), which accommodates world-leading scientists in the field of biology of bacterial cell and possesses the state of the art equipment. The successful candidate will acquire training in a wide range of biochemistry, molecular biology and microbiology techniques.