PhD Opportunities in Chemical Biology

The University of Helsinki is recruiting a doctoral researcher for the project Inhibiting Protein Synthesis – Old, New, Borrowed, Blue at the Viikki Campus in Helsinki, Finland. The project is based in the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Department of Molecular and Integrative Bioscience, and is led by Principal Investigator Sarah O’Keefe with co-supervision from Brendan Battersby. The research investigates how proteins are made and how protein-synthesis machinery can be inhibi...

A fully funded doctoral researcher project at the University of Helsinki invites a PhD student to join the O’Keefe Lab at the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences on the Viikki Campus in Helsinki . The work centres on protein synthesis and its inhibition, with a focus on the early stages of translation, membrane translocation and the discovery of new ways to probe and disrupt these processes. The project, Inhibiting Protein Synthesis – Old, New, Borrowed, Blue , brings together cellu...

The University of East Anglia in Norwich, United Kingdom, is offering a full-time PhD studentship in machine learning-guided engineering of next-generation cancer therapeutics, starting 1 October 2027. Supervised by Dr Amit Sachdeva, the interdisciplinary project will develop small antibody fragments designed to penetrate solid tumours more effectively than conventional full-length antibodies. The research combines machine learning-guided protein design with experimental chemical biology, synthe...

The University of East Anglia is offering a full-time, three-year PhD studentship in N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC)-stabilised gold nanoclusters for intracellular catalysis, supervised by Dr Sophie Thomas. The project is based in Norwich, England, and starts on 1 October 2027. The research will develop water-soluble NHC ligands and atomically precise gold nanoclusters with tunable stability, solubility, catalytic activity, size, and surface properties. It will investigate how ligand structure affe...

CiM-IMPRS PhD Programme in Life and Natural Sciences at the University of Münster is an interdisciplinary doctoral opportunity jointly run with the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine. The programme is designed for excellent students interested in biomedical research with a strong emphasis on imaging and quantitative approaches. PhD projects span a wide range of topics, including the analysis of basic cellular processes, developmental and stem cell biology, vascular biology, immunolog...

PhD opportunity at the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore (NUS). Presidential Young Professor Yilong Zhou is recruiting a PhD student to join an interdisciplinary research group at the interface of RNA biology and cancer research . Potential projects include biomolecular condensates and RNA–protein interactions, as well as DNA-encoded library screening and cancer therapeutics. The work may suit candidates interested in molecular biology, biochemistry, chemica...

The University of Cambridge is inviting applications for PhD research opportunities in synthetic chemistry within the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry. Seven internationally leading research groups offer projects spanning reaction discovery, catalysis, molecular design, chemical biology, supramolecular chemistry, and computation. The research community focuses on inventing new reactions, discovering catalysts, understanding molecular behaviour, and developing tools with applications in biolo...

[4-year fully funded Norwich Research Park Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership PhD studentship including payment of tuition fees, a stipend for living expenses at the 2026/27 rate of £21,805, and a Research Training Support Grant of £5,000 per year.] This fully funded PhD studentship at the University of East Anglia is hosted within the Norwich Research Park Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership and focuses on chemical biology approaches to tackling antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The p...

Doctoral Researcher (PhD) opportunity in protein synthesis at the University of Helsinki, Finland. The project sits at the intersection of cellular biology, chemical biology, cell-free protein synthesis, cryoEM, gene editing, and orthogonal high-throughput screening. The goal is to discover breakthrough protein synthesis inhibitors and repurpose existing compounds, expanding the chemical and biological space of translation and its inhibition. This is a research-intensive doctoral position for a ...