Applications for this project are now closed.
Protein crystallography as a discipline has enabled one of the biggest breakthroughs of the 20th century (watch this YouTube video) with over 27 Nobel Prizes having been awarded to projects related to the technique. Being a mature technique means it is also one of the most automated techniques at large facilities like synchrotrons. This is no different at Diamond Light Source with almost exclusive remote access and unattended data collections becoming the standard mode of operation. Every year thousands of three-dimensional structures of protein molecules are submitted and stored in the worldwide Protein Data Bank. These help a biochemical researcher to understand, develop and tackle problems including drug design for human diseases, to environmental mitigation of pollution, or saving endangered species from extinction due to new viruses.
Substantial amount of time, money and effort must be spent for every structure deposited in the Protein Data Bank. Often multiple iterations of the same or similar samples are required for deposition of a protein structure. In this project we aim to try to quantify how much data is necessary on average to solve a protein structure as well as to calculate the time that it takes from first data collection until structure deposition. To do this we aim to develop a tool relating published structures in the Protein Data Bank to all the data that could have potentially been used to determine that structure.
We expect you to gain understanding of the importance of proteins as molecular machines, as well as understanding the importance of big data but also the challenges that it poses. We also expect you to gain training in manipulating data and interaction with data and databases. You will be exposed to a highly interdisciplinary environment and you will be able to see first-hand the necessary processes for a successful protein structure determination. This includes instrument calibration, data collection and finally structure solution and interpretation and will inform the correlations that we will be looking at in the data. Finally, you will contribute to analysing performance of state-of-the-art instruments at one of the most major synchrotron facilities in the world.
We expect someone with keen interest in seeing science contributing to a better world, with curiosity to understand biological phenomena and some exposure to programming and data correlations.
Please apply via our online application portal. The vacancy that you are applying for is the "Summer Placements 2022" listing, you will then have the opportunity to select up to three projects to apply for. This project's reference is 22004SP.
Applications are now closed with interviews scheduled for 7, 8, 9 and 10 February 2022.
If you are disabled and would like to be considered under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please let us know via the online application process.
Please note that this role does not meet the required skill level for a Skilled Worker visa and therefore we would be unable to sponsor individuals due to the current UK Home Office immigration rules. To be appointed to the role, candidates will need to have the right to work in the UK without sponsorship from us.
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