PhD Studentship - FSE PhD President's Doctoral Scholarship - Mechanochromic Molecules for Cellular Forces Sensing

The University of Manchester; Manchester; On-site; GBP 21,000 - 25,000; Full time

Job summary

The University of Manchester invites applications for a 4-year PhD studentship focusing on mechanochemical sensors in biological tissue. Open to Home and international applicants, the project includes UKRI stipend at £21,805 per year plus £1,000 enhancement and a training grant up to £20,000 for the full duration of the programme.

Research will explore how tensile forces influence cellular processes, develop mechanochromophore sensors, and test them in cellular models.

Responsibilities

• Study mechanochromophore sensors in biological contexts.
• Train through-research model under established groups in mechanochemistry and organic/polymer chemistry.
• Demonstrate mechanochromophore performance using human cells as models.

Job description

This 4-year PhD studentship is open to both Home (UK) and international applicants. The successful candidate will receive an annual stipend at the UKRI minimum rate (currently £21,805 per year) plus £1,000/annum enhancement, and a research training support grant of up to £20,000 for the full 4-year programme.This project is in competition for funding with other projects. Usually, the projects that receives the best applicants will be successful.

Tensileforcesinfluenceavarietyofimportantcellularprocessesincludingcelldivision,stemcelldifferentiationandgeneexpression.

1. At the tissue level these forces play a crucial role in morphogenesis, wound healing, the immune response and in pathological processes such as cancer metastasis. However, our understanding of how force influences cell function is very limited due to a lack of techniques to measure force within live tissue.Todate,geneticallyencodedtensionsensorshavebeendeveloped,buttheiruseinwholetissueshassofarbeenlimited.Onereasonforthislimiteduseisthelowsensitivityofcurrentinvivotensionsensors.At the molecular level, the unique ability of mechanical force to distort, bend and stretch chemical bonds has led to the development of mechanochromic molecules acting as spatially sensitive molecular probes or micro-crack sensors in synthetic materials.
2. Chemicalmechanosensorsofferapotentiallypowerfulsolutiontothisproblembuthaveyettobetranslatedintobiologicalsystems.Here we will take a multidisciplinary approach to bridge this gap and aim to develop and test novel chemical force sensors suitable for measuring tensile forces at cellular/tissue level.

Thegoalsofthisprojectare:

• Thecreationofnewmechanochromophoresthatcanbeusedasforcesensorsinabiologicalcontext
• Determinehowphysicochemicalparametersinfluencemechanochromophoreactivationandfluorescence.
• Demonstratetheperformanceofselectedmechanochromophoresusinghumancellsasabiologicalmodelsystem.

Thepostgraduateresearcher(PGR)willbetrainedbymeansofatraining-through-researchmodelby:

Prof.DeBoandseniormembersoftheDeBogrouponmechanochemistryandvariousaspectsoforganicandpolymerchemistry.

DrAmerandseniormembersoftheAmergrouponcellculture,confocalmicroscopy,andforcemicroscopy.