News

We are looking for a new team member to study the biochemistry and microbiology of copper ions!

The 4-year PhD studentship is funded by the BBSRC Newcastle-Liverpool-Durham Doctoral Training Partnership. The student will be based in the Djoko Lab in Durham Biosciences but will also spend time in Dr Kevin Waldron’s lab in Newcastle University. The project also involves collaborators in University of East Anglia and in Australia. The studentship also funds a 3-month placement of the student’s choosing outside academia and training courses in biosciences research skills.

If this sounds interesting, please contact Karrera (email: karrera.djoko at durham.ac.uk) with informal inquiries. The project description can be found by clicking this link on FindAPhD.com.

 

Sam started recently in the lab as a PhD student, funded by the BBSRC Doctoral Training Partnership. Sam obtained her Master’s degree from Newcastle University, where she investigated the biochemical properties of a bacterial Cu storage protein (in Dr Kevin Waldron’s group). She will now study the mechanisms of Cu handling in pathogenic Neisseria.

 

 

Congratulations to our MBiol student Jack Bolton for winning the Durham Biophysical Sciences Institute Poster Prize today!

Update: This review has now been accepted! Congratulations co-first authors Louisa and Denis! The review can be accessed below:

PhD students Denis Thaqi (UQ, Australia) from the Djoko group and Louisa Stewart (Newcastle, UK) from the Waldron group are currently hard at work, drafting a mini review article for an invited contribution in Metallomics. The topic of this review is “Extracytoplasmic trafficking of nutrient copper in bacteria.” and relates to ongoing collaborative projects in the two groups. Stay tuned!

We opened our doors on 1 September 2017 (time flies!) and now that we’re 1 year old, we’re very much looking forward to welcoming Samantha Firth as our first PhD student, and welcoming back Jack Bolton as an MBiol student!

Recruitment for our second PhD position (with Dr James Walton in Durham Chemistry) has now closed. Thank you all for your interest. We will be interviewing shortlisted candidates in the next two weeks.

We are happy to announce that our joint bid for a 3-year PhD studentship was funded by the Durham University Global Challenges Research Fund Centre for Doctoral Training. The student will be based in collaborator Dr James Walton’s laboratory at the Department of Chemistry.

In the project, the student will synthesise a series of copper-binding small molecule ligands that act as antimicrobial resistance breakers. The student will also spend some time in the Djoko lab to perform microbiological testing of promising compounds. Please see our official advertisement here: https://www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=99978

Jack Bolton arrived in the lab as a summer student, funded by a Summer Research Bursary from Durham University Biophysical Sciences Institute. Jack will investigate metalation and mismetalation of metallo-b-lactamases for 8 weeks. He will also return to continue the project in October as an MBiol student. Exciting times!

Karrera gave an invited talk at the Centre for Global Infectious Diseases Symposium.

Karrera gave an invited talk at the British Society for Immunology Northeast Meeting.

A while ago, we posted this on Twitter:

Here’s a better photo:

It seemed to generate quite a bit of interest. So, here are the technical drawings! We learnt a few lessons along the way, so these drawings are for a slightly updated version of the turntable that incorporates small improvements. The drawings can be downloaded as a single PDF here.

In total, the cost of materials was around GBP 12. We used hobby metalworking machineries at home (mostly a benchtop lathe), so any university machining workshop should be able to recreate this easily! Note that we spray painted the base to prevent rusting.

We’d love to see your own versions, so if you do end up making one, please post a photo on Twitter (or email)!