Biocatalysis KTN Studentship Announced

Prozomix has obtained a 3-year Environmental Sustainability KTN PhD research grant to look into new Green-chemistry related recombinant enzyme technology.  Green-chemistry methodologies, such as biocatalysis, utilise less organic solvents, heavy metals and energy, in addition to offering rapid and efficient organic synthesis routes, and are thus in demand by an ever increasing number of commercial and academic customers the World round.  It is not just the green credentials that make this technique so popular, as the technology is often significantly cheaper to employ, with respect to traditional multi-step organic syntheses, and / or in some cases simply enables reactions to be performed that were not feasible using traditional chemistry.

This studentship will focus on the discovery and characterisation of novel P450 enzymes.  These catalysts perform numerous oxidative transformations, such as of inactivated C-C bonds, and their specificity over chemical methods, as with other biocatalysis reactions, makes them very powerful tools for today’s synthetic organic chemist.  Another biocatalysis studentship running at the same time, funded wholly by Prozomix, will see research performed into extremophilic oxidoreductases.

The research student will be based at both Prozomix, in Haltwhistle, Northumberland, and Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, during their studies, enabling both the academic and applied side of biocatalysis to be experienced.

The studentship will begin anytime between March and October 2011, and will be advertised by Northumbria University in early February, 2011.  In the interim, any interested party should contact Prozomix for further information:

Prozomix Limited
Station Court

Haltwhistle
Northumberland
NE49 9HN UK
Tel: + 44 (0) 1434 400455
Fax: + 44 (0) 1434 322822
info@prozomix.com
www.prozomix.com