Enhancing plant growth with novel catalytic "fertiliser" targeted towards the highly inefficient enzyme Rubisco

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Explore a new paradigm targeted towards the global challenge of food security, capitalising upon recent breakthroughs at ICL and will involve an exciting mix of synthetic inorganic and organic chemistry, chemical biology and enzymology. Bringing together expertise from the supervisory team at ICL & Syngenta in (i) photosynthesis, (ii) crop enhancement, (iii) agrochemical physical chemical testing / design / synthesis cycles and (iv) synthetic & formulation chemistry, this studentship will design, synthesise, test and optimise (in an iterative manner) novel molecular CO2 delivery vehicles, and demonstrate their potential as viable, scalable & cost-effective tools able to supercharge photosynthesis in vivo, resulting in increased crop yield.Key features will be (i) the development & optimization of a suite of bio-mimetics able to convert bicarbonate into CO2, (ii) the demonstration of the mimics' ability to improve Rubisco activity in vitro and (iii) in vivo studies using model plants to test their effect on yield.