EM insights into channel gating dynamics

Applications for this project are now closed.

In this project you will you use cutting edge cryo-EM techniques and technologies to investigate systems essential to Haemophillus influenzae, a pathogen responsible for thousands of deaths each year and a large variety of disease states. We are interested in the mechanisms by which the pathogen survives and thrives in the human host and will use results of this project to inform drug development.  

Initially, you will be based in the Research Complex at Harwell, an interdisciplinary hub, surrounded by academic and industrial groups, with access to the complete range of biochemical and biophysical techniques, and a collegiate atmosphere that makes it easy to pick up a new tool and have a go. Here you will isolate, prepare, and characterise your sample for structural study. Then, following on from preliminary data collected using X-ray crystallography this project is ready to move into cryo-EM. Using the facilities at eBIC, with the highest concentration of high-end electron microscopy in Europe, you will investigate dynamic changes in a vital ion transporter in response to different biologically relevant chemicals. The advantage of using cryo-EM for this study is that you will be able to look at single protein molecules, with their conformation free to change in response to their chemical environment, unencumbered by a crystal lattice. You will get hands-on experience with cryo-EM grid prep, data collection, processing and interpretation. You will use equipment that for most is only accessed remotely and see what is required to keep these microscopes running and pumping out world-class data. You will also be using cutting edge, and often unreleased, technology and interacting directly with experts to ensure that you can be as effective as possible. We are a technology development facility with close links to the partners building the instruments and the developers designing the data processing software. Your experiences will help drive and direct the future of these tools.  

Overall, the skills you will gain will be the perfect stepping stone to further academic study and exposure to the customer facing eBIC user program would help a move into a more industrial position. 

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 22006SP.

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.

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