Ph.D. Studentships in Bioinformatics Available in the Martin Lab
G6PD structure and activity: Potential for development of novel low-cost assays for field detection of G6PD deficiency for malaria management.
IMPACT STUDENTSHIP WITH FOUNDATION FOR INNOVATIVE NEW DIAGNOSTICS (FIND)
A UCL IMPACT PhD studentship co-funded by the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) is available in the Research Group of Dr. Andrew C.R. Martin. The project will analyze mutations in Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase (G6PD) with a view to identifying structural changes that can be detected using low-cost field assays to allow the introduction of new drugs to treat Plasmodium vivax malaria. The only class of drugs currently available, which are active against the latent 'hypnozoite' liver stage of this common form of malaria, are the 8-aminoquinolones. Unfortunately, in individuals having glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) mutations (the most common known enzymopathy in humans) these drugs can cause anaemia and, in severe cases, renal failure and death. Drugs such as Tafenoquine have a longer half-life than the established Primaquine, allowing easier dosing regimens, but also increasing this toxicity.
This project will focus on computational analysis of G6PD variants and comparison with enzyme activity, using our in-house SAAPdb pipeline, detailed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and machine-learning methods. The aim is to predict mutations that lead to disease and epitopes that may be revealed as consistent markers of reduced activity. In future, these can be used to create low cost field tests which are stable under prolonged storage in tropical conditions, and are simple to use and interpret.
The studentship is funded by the UCL IMPACT scheme and FIND for three years, starting October 2012. The Martin Group in the UCL Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology (ISMB) participates in several Centres in computational biology at UCL and the work will be carried out in close collaboration with FIND. The student will benefit from the interdisciplinary nature of the ISMB as well as excellent computing facilities in the group and access to the UCL high performance Legion compute farm with over 5600 cores.
Full details are available here.
To apply please send an electronic copy of your CV together with a personal statement to Dr. Andrew C.R. Martin - - by 14th March, 2012.
