Applying next generation structural biology methods to bacterial vaccine production (Ref: 3974)

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This project will offer an exciting opportunity to learn upcoming structural biology methods, and to apply these to avaccinology project. The key methodological focus of the project will be micro electron diffraction (micro-ED), amethod of determining protein structures that will become a mainstream method over the next five years. The trainingfrom this PhD will make the student very competitive for industry and academic positions at the end of the project.The project will allow the student to learn methods for preparing samples, collecting data, and using this data todetermine protein structures, as well as complementary experimental and computational methods for understandingthe experimental data.The project will determine the structure of proteins from Coxiella burnetii, a human pathogen that also causeseconomic losses in cattle worldwide. The Harmer group are part of a consortium aiming to develop a polysaccharidebased vaccine against C. burnetii. We are determining the structures of important polysaccharide biosynthesis proteinsto aid the production of a recombinant vaccine. This project will contribute to this programme and offer opportunitiesto work with others in the consortium. Structures will also be interrogated using modelling techniques to determinewhether any proteins might act as drug targets.