Eligibility
Master degree in Chemistry or Microbiology or Biotechnology
Master degree in Chemistry or Microbiology or Biotechnology
Large numbers of compounds with new structures and various bioactivities have been isolated from microbial sources particularly from marine microbial symbionts and terrestrial endophytes. Endophytes are organisms, often fungi and bacteria that live between living plant cells. The relationship established with the macro-organism is symbiotic without causing a disease to the host. Metabolomics data analysis will be used to aid strain selection by chemical profiling a variety of species by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS). Dereplication will be performed through an in-house Excel Macro by coupling the LC-HRMS data with the Dictionary of Natural Products (DNP) database. Multivariate analysis using SIMCA and other statistical platforms will be employed to define the uniqueness in the chemical profile of the microbial isolate which could be indicated as outliers. Finally, H1 NMR data and bioactivity data (e.g. anti-biofilms, anti-cancer) will indicate the presence of interesting compounds. Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structures Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA) and other statistical tools will used to predict the bioactive metabolites for further isolation work.
Project aim
Techniques used:
Applicant will need to self-fund, find sponsorship for tuition and bench fees of £10,000 per annum for duration of studies
Primary Supervisor: RuAngelie Edrada-Ebel
Email: ruangelie.edrada-ebel@strath.ac.uk
Kevin Andrew Stuart, Keira Welsh, Molly Clare Walker & RuAngelie Edrada-Ebel (2020) Metabolomic tools used in marine natural product drug discovery, Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery, DOI: 10.1080/17460441.2020.1722636
Sebak M, Saafan AE, AbdelGhani S, Bakeer W, El-Gendy AO, Espriu LC, Duncan K, Edrada-Ebel R (2019) Bioassay- and metabolomics-guided screening of bioactive soil actinomycetes from the ancient city of Ihnasia, Egypt. PLoS One 14 (12):e0226959. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0226959
Raheem DJ, Tawfike AF, Abdelmohsen UR, Edrada-Ebel R, Fitzsimmons-Thoss V (2019) Application of metabolomics and molecular networking in investigating the chemical profile and antitrypanosomal activity of British bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta). Sci Rep 9 (1):2547. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-38940-w
Tawfike AF, Tate R, Abbott G, Young L, Viegelmann C, Schumacher M, Diederich M, Edrada-Ebel R (2017) Metabolomic Tools to Assess the Chemistry and Bioactivity of Endophytic Aspergillus Strain. Chem Biodivers 14 (10). doi:10.1002/cbdv.201700040
Harvey AL, Edrada-Ebel R, Quinn RJ (2015) The re-emergence of natural products for drug discovery in the genomics era. Nat Rev Drug Discov 14 (2):111-129. doi:10.1038/nrd4510
Primary Supervisor: RuAngelie Edrada-Ebel
Email: ruangelie.edrada-ebel@strath.ac.uk
Applicants can apply using the University PEGASUS Application System https://www.strath.ac.uk/science/strathclydeinstituteofpharmacybiomedicalsciences/studywithus-postgraduate/phd/