PhD Opportunities in Structural Biology in United Kingdom

The University of Bristol is accepting applications for a funded PhD investigating how free fatty acids regulate beta-coronavirus infection. Co-supervised by Christiane Berger-Schaffitzel, Andrew Davidson, Harriet Mears and Paul Verkade, the project will examine how free fatty acids influence coronavirus infection, replication and evolution. It builds on the discovery of a conserved fatty acid-binding pocket in the coronavirus spike protein. The research combines structural biology, electron cry...

Funded PhD opportunity in viral DNA mimic proteins at the University of Bristol. Professor Mark Dillingham is seeking an enthusiastic PhD student to investigate how bacterial viruses (phages) produce proteins that masquerade as DNA and sabotage molecular machinery in bacterial hosts. The project will focus on discovering new DNA mimic proteins and understanding their mechanisms, including viral targeting of the bacterial DNA-processing enzyme RecBCD. Research will combine computational structura...

[4-year fully funded Norwich Research Park Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership PhD studentship including payment of tuition fees, a stipend for living expenses (£21,805 for 2026/27), and a Research Training Support Grant of £5,000 per year.] PhD Studentship at the University of East Anglia, based within the Norwich Research Park Biosciences Doctoral Training Programme (NRPDTP), investigating how unusual DNA and RNA structures called G-quadruplexes (G4s) regulate fungal growth and infection...

PhD opportunity in Engineering Biology at the University of Bristol , offered in collaboration with Prof Dek Woolfson through the SWBio DTP . The project is titled Engineering co-translational protein assembly using de novo designed proteins (Project ID: 3544). It asks how proteins assemble while being synthesised on the ribosome, building on advances in protein structure prediction such as AlphaFold and focusing on the folding and assembly of de novo designed coiled-coil proteins during transla...

[Fees plus a stipend of £21,805 per annum for 2026/7; funded by EPSRC.] PhD Studentship at the University of Exeter in the Physics department on an ambitious project to build a polarisation-resolved nonlinear microscope with true 3D vectorial control of the focal field. This studentship is aimed at a candidate interested in advanced optical instrumentation, structured light, nonlinear microscopy, and the physics of biological tissue. The project will focus on polarisation-resolved second-harmoni...

University of York is advertising a fully funded PhD opportunity in bioinformatics , global health , and virology focused on predicting the next pandemic by enhancing viral surveillance . The project is designed for a student interested in combining computational approaches with laboratory-based research to detect dangerous viral variants earlier and improve preparedness for future outbreaks. The research spans computational biology , structural biology , evolutionary analysis , and high-through...

Coming soon at the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, The University of Leeds: two postdoctoral positions and one PhD position will soon be advertised. The research themes mentioned are outer membrane protein assembly mechanisms and cryoEM of amyloid. One postdoc and one PhD student will be linked to outer membrane protein assembly mechanisms, while one postdoc will focus on cryoEM of amyloid. The post is shared by Sheena Radford, Astbury Professor of Biophysics at The University o...

PhD opportunity at the University of Bath in the Faculty of Science , starting September 2027 . This interdisciplinary project sits at the interface of artificial intelligence , protein engineering , enzymology , and structural biology . The research will investigate why closely related enzymes in the same family act either as peptidases (peptide-cutting proteases) or ligases (peptide-joining enzymes). The project combines AI-driven protein analysis , directed enzyme evolution , biochemical char...

Fully funded competitive PhD studentship available in the team of Professor Aga Gambus at the University of Birmingham. The project focuses on regulation of p97 unfoldase in the context of DNA replication and ubiquitylation. The research is interdisciplinary and combines biochemistry, structural biology, and cell biology, making it a strong fit for candidates interested in DNA metabolism and protein regulation. The studentship is offered through the Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Part...