Novel Polymers for Tunable Protein-lipid Nanodisc Formation Aston University

Overview

Over the last two decades, Aston has been core in developing polymer technology for the extraction of membrane proteins and lipids into nanoscale discs. This stabilises the proteins and allows numerous approaches to downstream study, including immobilisation of the discs. Although these polymers tend to be very polydisperse, they form regular protein-lipid discs of either ~10 nm or ~20 nm diameter depending on the polymer, with some influence from the protein itself.  The MEMetic project seeks to use these discs to incorporate membrane protein transporters into bioinspired membranes.  Whilst polymer membranes can be designed to incorporate a range of disc sizes, it would be much more efficient to understand the fundamental “rules” that govern disc size, to allow us to design precise membranes to accommodate them. 

The Novel Polymers for Tunable Protein-lipid Nanodisc Formation programme at Aston University  will create and test a series of polymers of different, exquisitely controlled, architectures to extract Aquaporin 4 (which itself forms multimers of proteins) to understand the fundamental mechanism of nanodisc size control.

Career prospects

Studying for a PhD is a great route into academia and industries that are centred on research and innovation. Areas with a demand for very high level and specialised research skills often demand PhDs.

In addition to this specialist knowledge, a PhD education will help you to develop a set of valuable transferable skills. The very nature of studying an intensive research degree will enable you to become a team player, develop problem-solving skills, analytical thinking, and advanced presentation and communication skills.

The variety of PhD project topics at Aston means that the destinations of our graduates vary substantially. Some choose to continue into academia, at either Aston or other leading institutions, while others go onto use their newly acquired skills in a range of research, healthcare, industry, or charitable fields. When selecting your chosen PhD path at Aston, your supervisor will be able to provide you with relevant career opportunities that could be available to you in your specialist area.