Project List 2020
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Nottingham BBSRC DTP Project List 2020 For interview candidates Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 2 Ageing...................................................................................................................................................... 3 Animal Health .......................................................................................................................................... 5 Animal Welfare ........................................................................................................................................ 7 Bioenergy ................................................................................................................................................ 7 Chemical Biology ..................................................................................................................................... 8 Crop Science .......................................................................................................................................... 10 Diet and Health ..................................................................................................................................... 11 Immunology .......................................................................................................................................... 12 Industrial Biotechnology ........................................................................................................................ 13 Microbial Food Safety ............................................................................................................................ 14 Microbiology ......................................................................................................................................... 15 Neuroscience ......................................................................................................................................... 17 Pharmaceuticals .................................................................................................................................... 19 Plant Science ......................................................................................................................................... 21 Regenerative Biology ............................................................................................................................. 22 Soil Science ............................................................................................................................................ 23 Stem Cells .............................................................................................................................................. 24 Structural Biology .................................................................................................................................. 25 Synthetic Biology ................................................................................................................................... 27 Systems Biology ..................................................................................................................................... 28 Technology Development ..................................................................................................................... 29 The 3Rs .................................................................................................................................................. 30 Project Details ....................................................................................................................................... 31 1 Introduction Dear Candidate, We are looking forward to welcoming you to your interview for the Nottingham BBSRC DTP. Prior to your interview, we ask that you review this list of projects and identify three projects that you would be interested in undertaking should you be offered a place on the programme. You should do this using the Confirmation of Attendance form by midnight on Sunday 8th March. Please note that indicating your preference for a project at this point does not guarantee that you will be allocated this project should your application be successful – formal project allocation will take place in summer 2020. This project listing is subject to change. This booklet contains all of the projects currently on offer for students enrolling on the BBSRC DTP in September 2020. They have been sorted by research area. Some projects are listed in multiple research areas as appropriate. As a DTP student, you would undertake two lab rotations, and you will find that some projects indicate that they are linked to another – this is to indicate where two lab rotations would work especially well together as preparation for a PhD project. If you would like to find out more about a project, please look up the supervisor on the relevant institution’s website, where you will find their staff profile and an email address. Supervisors will be very happy to answer any questions you may have. Enjoy exploring the projects. Best wishes, The Nottingham BBSRC DTP Team 2 Ageing (4) Exploring the immune instructive potential of glycosaminoglycans (8) Project title Synthesis and Evaluation of Harmonine and Analogues for Inhibition of NMDA Receptors (23) Regulating DNA methylation to enhance neural plasticity (24) First 3D isogenic model for the study of age-related bone loss (26) Identifying genetic determinants ensuring correct DNA damage repair pathway choice (30) Epigenomic mechanisms regulating synaptic plasticity and cognitive ageing (31) Role of post-translational modifications in DNMT3B activity (32) Understanding how traumatic early life experience shapes brain development (35) Development of a non-invasive imaging toolbox for investigating muscle physiology and its application to peripheral vascular disease (42) Inhibition of mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) as a novel therapeutic for maintaining skeletal muscle mass during ageing (43) The protein secrets of ancient teeth (47) Epigenetic and epitranscriptomic networks in gene regulation and cancer (49) The role of E2F7/8 on HIF-1 and cellular response during hypoxia (51) The Role of the Neurovascular Unit in Maintaining Normal Blood-Brain Barrier Function and Healthy Ageing (57) Investigating the role of APOE-e4 in structural and functional changes to neuromodulatory brain nuclei (59) Identifying predicative patterns of activity in spinal pain circuitry characteristic of chronic pain and plasticity (61) The role of G protein-coupled receptors in the control of brown adipose tissue (63) Role of non-coding RNAs in the development of somatosensory systems (64) Interferons as pacesetters in cellular ageing (74) Evaluating the effect of training on pupillometry, EEG, and performance on a naturalistic driving task (75) Effects of peri-conceptional vitamin B12 and folate deficiency on epigenetic programming of metabolic health (86) Investigating the role of cell mechanics in Alzheimer’s disease-associated neuroinflammation 3 (89) Dynamic design and bottom-up assembly of complex 3D micro-environments: Construction and study of the bone fracture callus (90) The effects of physical activity and social enrichment on healthy brain ageing (95) Neuroinflammatory responses across the lifespan: Role of Nuclear Receptor SUMOylation (96) A comparative analysis of survivin distribution in young, aged and transformed human cells, and its influence on genomic integrity under hypoxia (100) Selective editing of cellular protein degradation to target cancer cells (105) PARP-1 roles in age-related skeletal muscle metabolic decline (116) The role of monoamine oxidases (MAOs) in selective vulnerability of brain cells - implications for healthy ageing (125) mRNA methylation and complex components within healthy, developing and diseased the cardiovascular system (128) The role of circadian clock genes in cognition (139) Defining how the spinal cord endothelial cell modulates pain perception (141) Tuning dietary fibre structure and composition to improve the glucose absorption curve of starchy foods (156) Substrates of Recognition Memory in Mice (158) Speech Processing in the Ageing Brain (161) Mapping the 3-Dimensional Architecture of Human Oocyte Chromosomes (168) Investigating mechanisms which control blood vessel formation and function: how does GPCR signalling by Calcrl/Ramp2 control permeability of the blood-brain barrier? (169) Impact of a crucial regulator of mitosis on the motility and proliferation of cells (33) Optimising CRISPR-based genetic editing in human cells by tweaking DNA repair (10) Pause for thought: Corticostriatal dopamine and the inhibitory modulation of associative learning 4 Animal Health (5) Impact of variation in equine influenza A virus pathogenicity determinants on vaccine effectiveness and interspecies transmission (17) VIROFISH (19) Impact of tetracyclines on AMR in race horses (21) Left-right asymmetry in Hawaiian ‘Looking-glass’ snails (41) Induction of autophagy by important animal and human viruses (53) The genomic and phenotypic basis of a biological invasion (55) Resilience of agriculturally important spiders to insecticides (56) Screening for new antibiotics using native protein mass spectrometry (57) Investigating the role of APOE-e4 in structural and functional changes to neuromodulatory brain nuclei (59) Identifying predicative patterns of activity in spinal pain circuitry