Two doctoral student positions are available in the EU HORIZON 2020 MSC-ITN project RNAct on Integrative structural biology and biophysics to analyse and design RNA interactions of RNA-Recognition Motif (RRM) proteins.
ESR5 project: RRM structure and design for synthetic biology and bio-analytics applications
This project will design RRM proteins with novel RNA binding properties and develop small molecules to modulate RNA binding activity. The design will be confirmed using experimental structural biology. The modulation of RNA binding by small molecules will be experimentally assessed by combining state-of-the-art solution NMR and biophysical techniques (ITC, FP, SPR). The project is in collaboration with computational groups of the ITN for the design of RRM variants and for experimental validation in cellular assays.
This project will characterise the dynamics and RNA recognition of RRMs using a combination of advanced solution NMR (relaxation measurements to characterise internal dynamics from nanosecond to millisecond timescales) and biophysical techniques (ITC, FP, SPR). These experiments will identify the role of specific residues and dynamic features in RRM proteins for RNA binding specificity and identify key residues and molecular features involved. In close collaboration with computational groups of the ITN, RRM variants that modulate RNA recognition will be designed and experimentally verified.