Applying next generation structural biology methods to bacterial vaccine production (Ref: 3974)

This project will offer an exciting opportunity to learn upcoming structural biology methods, and to apply these to a
vaccinology project. The key methodological focus of the project will be micro electron diffraction (micro-ED), a
method of determining protein structures that will become a mainstream method over the next five years. The training
from this PhD will make the student very competitive for industry and academic positions at the end of the project.
The project will allow the student to learn methods for preparing samples, collecting data, and using this data to
determine protein structures, as well as complementary experimental and computational methods for understanding
the experimental data.
The project will determine the structure of proteins from Coxiella burnetii, a human pathogen that also causes
economic losses in cattle worldwide. The Harmer group are part of a consortium aiming to develop a polysaccharide
based vaccine against C. burnetii. We are determining the structures of important polysaccharide biosynthesis proteins
to aid the production of a recombinant vaccine. This project will contribute to this programme and offer opportunities
to work with others in the consortium. Structures will also be interrogated using modelling techniques to determine
whether any proteins might act as drug targets.