New 4 year BBSRC PhD available in the lab!

/ Emyr L-E

A joint PhD opportunity, fully funded by the BBSRC for EU applicants, will soon become available between the Lloyd-Evans and Berry laboratories at the School of Biosciences, Cardiff University.

Project title – “Molecular mechanisms of action for the Toxin_10 insecticidal proteins”

Project description (brief) – Insecticidal toxins are crucial molecules for pest control. This project combines molecular and protein characterisation of some of the members of this family. We will further characterise their molecular interactions with plasma membrane receptors and lipids including their subsequent endocytosis into the cell and the mechanisms by which they induce cell death. The goal of this project is to elucidate the mechanisms by which these toxins function to improve our understanding of their insecticidal modes of action and to develop new tools for mammalian cell biology.

This PhD will be advertised on FindaPhD (shortly) and the SWBio website (http://www.swbio.ac.uk/files/2017/10/swbio-18-project-15.pdf).

http://www.swbio.ac.uk/programme/projects-available/biomolecular-biophysical/

Deadline for applications is December 4th 2017.

For further information or any queries regarding this PhD please contact Emyr.

https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/81221-lloyd-evans-emyr

Image: Predicted structure of a Toxin_10 family member courtesy of Dr. Colin Berry

MRC funded PhD studentship opportunity available in the ELE lab

/ Emyr L-E

We’re pleased to announce that our project on the role of nanoparticle toxicity in neuronal health and Alzheimer’s disease has been selected for competitive funding. These PhD’s are fully funded by the MRC as part of the GW4 consortium and are open to students from European countries who have relevant biological sciences undergraduate degrees. We are looking for highly motivated, high quality students to apply for this PhD, the best candidate will then be put forward for interview with a select number of the best students being picked for a number of PhD’s across the consortium.

The project itself is predominantly focused on identifying the impact of metallic nanoparticles on the brain, with a particular focus on the recent evidence connecting iron nanoparticles with Alzheimer disease. As these nanoparticles normally accumulate within lysosomes, we will utilise our particular expertise in this area to determine the impact of the particles on lysosomal function in the brain and will attempt to determine if lysosomal dysfunction is an underlying cause of the association between iron nanoparticles and Alzheimer’s. We will also be investigating the use of novel nanoparticles for utilisation in lysosomal purification technology.

Anyone who is interested in applying is encouraged to initially contact Dr. Lloyd-Evans by e-mail with a CV. Quality of CV, application material and an informal interview are essential components in deciding who will ultimately be put forward for the eventual PhD interview.

More information can be found at:

http://www.gw4biomed.ac.uk/available-projects/national-productivity-investment-fund-studentships/national-productivity-investment-fund-projects/

And details on how to apply can be found here:

http://www.gw4biomed.ac.uk/available-projects/national-productivity-investment-fund-studentships/

Deadline for applications is 9am (morning!) on June 8th, interviews will take place on Friday, June 30th.

Lloyd-Evans lab success at the 9th NPC Forum!

/ Emyr L-E

sdr

Dublin, March 24-26th, 2017

Emyr, Emily C, Katie and Jordan all attended the 9th NPC Forum in Dublin over the weekend. This conference for professionals working on NPC disease is supported by Actelion Pharmaceuticals and brings together basic scientists, clinicians and healthcare workers from around the world. Emyr gave two presentations, one on the lab’s work related to miglustat and one on the future of NPC research. This was a great meeting and was made even better when Emily and Jordan, who had posters at the meeting, were jointly awarded the poster prize. Congratulations to both of them and for the fantastic job they did preparing their posters and presenting them at the meeting! It was great to catch up with our colleagues and to develop collaborations further and start some new ones!

 

 

New microscopes in ELE lab!

/ Emyr L-E

We’re delighted to announce that both of our new microscope systems, provided by Cairn, have been installed. Cairn have been extremely helpful in assisting us with the design, setup and installation of these systems, a big thank you to all at the company who helped us.

davOur first system constitutes an older microscope stand, a modified Zeiss Axiovert 35, retrofitted into a dual excitation and dual emission system for ratiometric imaging of Ca2+, Zn2+, pH probes etc. This microscope is fitted with dual Cairn Optospin IV filters wheels, a Hamamatsu Orca-Flash4.0 sCMOS high speed camera, an X-cite 120 PCQ HXP lamp, all Zeiss Fluar lenses and Molecular Devices MetaFluor for ratiometric image acquisition and analysis.

IMG_20170303_164324.jpgThe second system is a Leica TCS SPE confocal which has now been fitted with an additional Retiga R1 CCD camera and a Jena Mipos 500 Piezo unit for collecting Z stacks. This unit is controlled with Micro Manager.

Both microscopes have been setup in our dedicated imaging lab, where we already have two working systems (Zeiss Colibri LED Ca2+ imaging system and Leica DM2500 system for immunohistochemistry). All four micro-scopes are now ready for use.

Many thanks to Joao from Cairn for setting up these systems and for the training. Further thanks to the School of Biosciences (Cardiff University) for a £10k grant to assist with purchasing the ratiometric imaging system.