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

探索一种针对全球粮食安全挑战的新范式，利用ICL最近的突破，并将涉及合成无机化学和有机化学、化学生物学和酶学的令人兴奋的组合。结合ICL和先正达监督团队在(I)光合作用、(Ii)作物改良、(Iii)农业化学物理化学测试/设计/合成循环和(Iv)合成和配方化学方面的专业知识，这个奖学金将设计、合成、测试和优化(以迭代的方式)新型分子二氧化碳输送工具，并展示它们作为可行的、可扩展的和具有成本效益的工具的潜力，能够在体内增加光合作用，从而提高作物产量。关键特征将是(I)开发和优化一套能够将重碳酸盐转化为二氧化碳的生物仿生学，(Ii)证明了模拟物在体外提高Rubisco活性的能力；以及(Iii)利用模型植物进行体内研究，以测试它们对产量的影响。

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.