PhD Studentship: 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 exploring mechanochromophore sensors to measure tensile forces in live tissue. The successful candidate will join a multidisciplinary project bridging chemistry and biology.

Applicants should hold or be about to obtain a minimum upper second-class honours degree in Chemistry, with desirable experience in synthetic organic chemistry. Funding covers stipend (£21,805) plus £1,000 enhancement per year and a training grant.

Qualifications

• Minimum upper second-class undergraduate honours degree (or equivalent) in Chemistry.
• Research experience in synthetic organic chemistry is desirable.

Responsibilities

• Develop and test novel mechanochromophore sensors for cellular/tissue level measurements.
• Collaborate with the De Bo and Amer groups on mechanochemistry and related cell biology assays.
• Learn and apply confocal microscopy and force-mensing techniques in live tissue contexts.

Education

Minimum upper second-class undergraduate honours degree in Chemistry

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.

Tensile forces influence a variety of important cellular processes including cell division, stem cell differentiation and gene expression.

• 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. To date, genetically encoded tension sensors have been developed, but their use in whole tissues has so far been limited. One reason for this limited use is the low sensitivity of current in vivo tension sensors. 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.
• Chemical mechanosensors offer a potentially powerful solution to this problem but have yet to be translated into biological systems. 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.

The goals of this project are:

• The creation of new mechanochromophores that can be used as force sensors in a biological context
• Determine how physicochemical parameters influence mechanochromophore activation and fluorescence.
• Demonstrate the performance of selected mechanochromophores using human cells as a biological model system.

The postgraduate researcher (PGR) will be trained by means of a training-through-research model by:

Prof. De Bo and senior members of the De Bo group on mechanochemistry and various aspects of organic and polymer chemistry.

Dr Amer and senior members of the Amer group on cell culture, confocal microscopy, and force microscopy.

Applicants are expected to hold (or be about to obtain) a minimum upper second-class undergraduate honours degree (or equivalent) in Chemistry. Research experience in synthetic organic chemistry is desirable.