Testing Whether Unknown Phage Proteins Bind DNA

Project description

Phages are small viruses that infect bacteria and that we use to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria in people. Many important phage and bacterial proteins work by binding DNA. These include proteins involved in genome replication, transcriptional regulation, restriction-modification, CRISPR systems, recombination, and phage defence or counter-defence. However, many phage proteins remain completely uncharacterised. Your project will test whether selected unknown phage proteins bind DNA and, where possible, identify the DNA sequences or motifs they recognise. You will learn how to use laboratory assays such as electrophoretic mobility shift assays, DNA enrichment assays, or sequencing-based approaches to test these hypotheses, all core molecular biology techniques that are important regardless of where you end up researching! The results will help reveal new mechanisms used by phages and may identify useful components for future synthetic phage. Work in our friendly and supportive group that includes Honours Students, PhD students, and Postdocs. We love to travel the world and present our research.

Further information

For more information about our research, check out our lab website and the FAME group's website

Assumed knowledge

You should have completed an undergraduate course in molecular biology, microbiology, biochemistry, biotechnology, genetics, or a related field. A basic understanding of DNA, proteins, gene expression, and microbial systems is expected. We will teach you how to do gel electrophoresis, PCR, cloning, bacterial culture, and sequence analysis.

Note: You need to register interest in projects from different supervisors (not a number of projects with the one supervisor).
You must also contact each supervisor directly to discuss both the project details and your suitability to undertake the project.