The guardian of the cell surface: Understanding transport across the glycocalyx

FUNDING: 9 weeks (full time, 37 hrs per week, £12.60/hr per hour, £700 consumables, £500 student accommodation bursary)
Featured image for “The guardian of the cell surface: Understanding transport across the glycocalyx”
LOCATION: Leeds, UK
SUPERVISOR(S):

Jelizaveta Pavljuk, Biomedical Sciences, Leeds


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Are you keen to experience interdisciplinary research at the interface between biology, physics and chemistry? The glycocalyx is a complex gel-like meshwork comprising the outmost layer of virtually every cell in our body. Biological ‘colloids’ such as the body’s own signalling proteins or foreign viruses and bacterial toxins, need to diffuse through the glycocalyx to interact with their designated cell surface receptors. These interactions ensure cell surface receptor access to trigger downstream cell signalling responses. In this project, you will contribute to the development of a new method to probe diffusion within the glycocalyx in molecular detail. You will be developing and testing model biocolloids designed to mimic viruses and extracellular vesicles against experimental glycocalyx models. You will use state-of-the-art biophysical techniques, such as advanced fluorescence microscopy, to evaluate these interactions. In the longer term, this project will help progress our fundamental understanding of transport across the glycocalyx, and the development of antivirals and antibacterial agents. The project has potential to contribute to a scientific publication describing the mechanisms underpinning such transport. Students will need to find their own accommodation and be expected to present their findings orally at a research day in York in September 2025.