@cam.ac.uk
A competition-funded PhD with Dr R Sawarkar at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, studying how cells control gene expression and chromatin when they come under stress, to find new therapeutic targets for neurodegeneration and cancer relapse and to make RNA therapeutics more effective. Open to UK and European students. See more funded PhDs.
University of Cambridge, Department of Biochemistry
Supervisor: Dr R Sawarkar
Competition Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
Our cells respond to a variety of external stresses such as environmental agents and medicines we take. The regulation of cellular response at the level of gene expression and chromatin forms the focus of the PhD projects. We use mammalian cells in culture to implement a variety of state-of-the-art approaches including genomics and machine learning/ AI. We leverage our understanding of RNA biology to address how the emerging RNA Therapeutics (e.g. COVID mRNA vaccine and anti-sense oligonucleotides) interact with biomolecules when injected in patients. The projects will build on our recent discovery of novel stress-induced biomolecular condensates (Rawat et al, 2021; Sawarkar, 2022) and new mechanisms of regulation of tRNA genes (Leone et al, 2024).
The overall objectives of the PhD project(s) are: (1) To identify new therapeutic targets in the stress response pathways for treating neurodegeneration and cancer relapse. (2) To find ways to make the emerging RNA therapeutics more effective with fewer side-effects.
The prospective candidates are welcome to contact the PI with their detailed CV as well as a short paragraph on how they would like to contribute to the overall objectives stated above during their PhD.
References
Leone S, Srivastava A, Herrero-Ruiz A, Hummel B, Tittel L, Campalastri R, Aprile-Garcia F, Tan JH, Rawat P, Andersson P, Willis AE, Sawarkar R. (2024) HSP70 binds to specific non-coding RNA and regulates human RNA polymerase III.
Mol Cell. 2024 Feb 15;84(4):687-701.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2024.01.001. Epub 2024 Jan 23. PMID: 38266641
Sawarkar R. (2024) Transcriptional lockdown during acute proteotoxic stress.
Trends Biochem Sci. 2022 Aug;47(8):660-672. doi: 10.1016/j.tibs.2022.03.020. Epub 2022 Apr 26. PMID: 35487807
Rawat P, Boehning M, Hummel B, Aprile-Garcia F, Pandit AS, Eisenhardt N, Khavaran A, Niskanen E, Vos SM, Palvimo JJ, Pichler A, Cramer P, Sawarkar R. (2021)
Stress-induced nuclear condensation of NELF drives transcriptional downregulation.
Mol Cell. 2021 Mar 4;81(5):1013-1026.e11. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2021.01.016. Epub 2021 Feb 5. PMID: 33548202
To apply for this job please visit www.findaphd.com.
