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If you want a career in pharmaceutical chemistry research, joining a PhD project at the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø School of Pharmacy will put you on the right path.

This is a taster of some of the PhD projects you can be involved in at the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø. To discuss the different projects available, please contact Dr Graeme Cottrell by emailing g.s.cottrell@reading.ac.uk.

The reversible oxidation of cysteine residues in proteins has been implicated in intracellular signalling events, activation of autophagy, protein folding and the maintenance of cellular redox balance. Oxidation reactions resulting in irreversible modifications are also associated with various disease states. As such, tools which allow us to identify proteins in the cell which are susceptible to oxidation have the potential to provide information about these processes.

This interdisciplinary project brings together elements of synthetic chemistry, analytical sciences and cell biology. It focusses on the design and synthesis of molecule probes to react with the initial product of this oxidation reaction, and examine the ability of these compounds to label proteins contain cysteine residues susceptible to oxidation.

Within the cell, calcium ions act as a crucially important messenger, mediating a plethora of important signalling and signal transduction events. The ability to quantify and visualise the calcium status of the cell can therefore provide important insights into these pathways.

Small molecule dyes which respond to the calcium status of the cell are often used to probe such events. As with all tools designed to probe biological systems, however, it is important they exert minimal adverse effects on the cell or influence the process under study.

In this interdisciplinary project, you will use a combination of synthetic chemistry, analytical sciences and cell biology methods to design and test a series of novel indicator dyes designed to quantify cellular calcium signalling events whilst preserving normal cellular functions.

Defects in protein post-translational modifications have been linked to a variety of disease states and developmental disorders. Glycosylation (the process by which carbohydrates are linked to the surface of biomolecules) is one of the most commonly observed protein modifications. Changes in both in the sugars displayed upon the surface of proteins and those released from cellular degradation pathways can provide insights into diseas