PhD Studentship in Chemistry

A PhD studentship is available within Dr. M. Daniela Angione’s group in the School of Chemistry and in the Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices at Trinity College Dublin (CRANN), Trinity College Dublin. This position is a three-years PhD studentship fully funded by Science Foundation Ireland.

Project Overview:

The project focuses on the development of advanced electroactive functional fibril-based systems with specific mechanical, chemical and biological properties, to better resemble the in vivo environment in modelling host-pathogen interactions.

Given the periodic emergence of new and old infections, and the pressing challenges from antimicrobial resistance and pandemic threats such as SARS, Ebola, Covid-19, modern, disease-relevant, cell-based phenotypic assay methodologies represent critical target for improving our knowledge of the dynamics of host-pathogen interactions in their natural environment and the development of new therapies.

In this context, organic bioelectronics is showing significant advancement in the development of in vitro model systems as well as diagnostic and implantable devices, bridging the gap between living organisms and electronics. The capability of organic electronic materials, in fact, in conducting and processing both electronic and ionic (bio)signals, tightly coupled via electron-ion charge compensation, lays the ground for the development of multivalent tools with enhanced sensitivity. Moreover, organic electronic molecules and polymers can be ad hoc designed to possess desired physical, chemical, and biological properties, using synthetic or post processing modification tools.

The outcome of the project is to design and developing/synthesizing a 3-dimensional functional electroactive system capable of resembling a dynamic 3-D microenvironment in terms of its biological, chemical, and physical/mechanical properties. The 3-dimensional model system will be employed for the investigation of pathogens-host mechanisms of interaction, and it will build on the specificity of glycan-protein/protein-protein interactions, and the remarkable analytical figure of merits of the organic bioelectronic platform.

The PhD student will work closely with other members of a multidisciplinary environment including PIs, postdoctoral and postgraduate researchers within the School of Chemistry and the SFI Research for Advanced Materials and Bio-Engineering Research Centre (AMBER).

Moreover, the research project in which the PhD student will be enrolled is carried out in collaboration with Prof. R. Owens, leading advances in the field of Bioelectronic Systems at the University of Cambridge (UK).