Building artificial cells for clinical diagnosis of pathogen infections

Artificial cells mimic the structure and some properties of natural, living cells with reduced complexity. They are assembled from their molecular constituents, enabling them to be engineered with specific functions and developed for applications in a range of technology areas, including environmental remediation, chemical manufacture and biomedicine. In this project, you will join an international team, across UK and Japan, developing artificial cells for rapid diagnosis of pathogen infections.

You will join an international project team (split between Leeds, Osaka, Kobe and Tokyo) and contribute to the design and optimisation of these molecular sensors. A particular focus of the PhD project will be to determine how these sensors can be used in a clinical setting. You may also broaden the range of targets that can be detected and distinguished by the system to include other antibiotic-resistant pathogens. As part of the wider project team, you will have the opportunity to undertake a 3-month secondment at one of our project partners in Japan as well as to network with the wider national and international engineering biology and synthetic cell communities.

This PhD project will develop your skills and training in biotechnology, chemical biology and biophysics and would suit a recent graduate in Natural Sciences, Biochemistry, Chemistry, or related disciplines such as biochemical engineering or biophysics.