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Welcome to the Astbury Centre website. To find out more about the Centre, its research portfolio and the scientists that are at its heart, follow the links on the left. For general information about the range of postgraduate study available in the Centre follow the links on the right.

There are a number of specific studentships currently on offer including three EPSRC-funded 3.5 year studentships that have been earmarked by the University for strategic development of science within the Centre. Six projects are available, as detailed below. In addition, two places are available in our WellcomeTrust funded PhD studentship programme in Molecular Mechanisms of Biological Processes (see link at right for details). In both areas, the studentships will be awarded to the strongest candidates, based on their application and performance at interview. All projects are jointly supervised by scientists with complementary skills, which will ensure an interdisciplinary approach. You will find details of each of the named supervisors in the ‘People’ section of the website.

Eligibility: the EPSRC-funded studentships are available to UK/EU candidates with a good first degree (2.1 or higher). EU candidates who have been ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK for 3 years prior to the start of the grant will be eligible for the full award and otherwise a fees only award, Wellcome Trust funded studentships are available to UK, EU and international candidates.

To apply, please complete both the expression of interest form and submit your CV. Your CV should include up-to-date details of your academic performance. A formal application through the University of Leeds and formal transcripts are not required at this stage.

Closing date: 31 March 2010.

The six proposed projects earmarked for EPSRC funding are as follows:

1. Synthesis of new reagents able to transfect proteins to living cells (Turnbull, Webb, Macdonald)
2. Development and application of novel pro-fluorescent dye technology to monitor protein dynamics in vitro and in living cells (Baldwin, Radford, Nelson)
3. Development and application of new chemical tools for site-specific chemical labelling of proteins implicated in disease (Fishwick, Hooper)
4. Protein prosthesis: improving protein properties through replacing protein segments with alpha-helix mimetics (Wilson, Warriner, Radford)
5. Expanding the scope of biocatalysis through incorporation of unnatural amino acids in enzyme active sites (Nelson, Berry)
6. Development of novel single molecule tools to follow assembly and dynamics of large macromolecular complexes (Tuma, Stockley)

In addition an EPSRC/CASE award with GSK and Professor Alison Ashcroft is also available: "Development of Techniques and Strategies for the Characterisation and Structure Elucidation of Oligonucleotides by Mass Spectrometry"