Dear colleagues:
I would like to bring to your attention an opening for a PhD
position in my lab as follows;
Funded Ph.D. position at the School of Biological Sciences, University of
Auckland
We are seeking a well-qualified and highly motivated candidate for the position
of a doctoral student to carry out a peptide-based drug-design project
involving a multi-disciplinary approach. The project targets the interaction
between endoplasmic reticulum (ER) chaperone ERp44 and the collagenous hormone
adiponectin. Adiponectin, abundantly and exclusively secreted from adipocytes
(fat cells), exerts a wide range of beneficial functions against
obesity-associated pathologies such as type2 diabetes and is a potent
biotherapeutic. Under obesity-induced ER stress, dysregulation of ERp44 partly
leads to sequestration of adiponectin in ER. We are exploring the action of
rationally designed peptides that may interfere in ERp44-adiponectin
interaction to release the aberrantly trapped adiponectin as a means of
mitigating the onset of metabolic syndrome in obesity.
The interdisciplinary project in collaboration with Dr. Yu Wang at University
of Hong Kong combines rationally designed peptide synthesis, biophysical
characterization of the binding of these peptides with ERp44, and examination
of their action in cellulo and in vivo towards elevating the level of
circulating adiponectin. A 3-year funding from the Health Research Council of
New Zealand supports this project. The candidate should have a background in
one or more of the following disciplines: Structural Biology, biophysics,
protein biochemistry, peptide synthesis.
The peptide synthesis will be carried out in an in-house state-of-the-art
facility. The biophysical instrumentation suite includes ITC, DSC, DLS,
SEC-MALLS, UV-Vis, fluoresecence spectrophotometer, Mass Spectrometry, NMR and
CD. We have a modern in-house X-ray suite and a crystallization robot. We also
have frequent access to the Australian Synchrotron facility.
Relevant publications:
1. Radjainia, M, Wang, Y and Mitra, AK. Structural polymorphism of
oligomeric adiponectin visualized by electron microscopy. J Mol Biol, 2008.
381(2): 419-30.
2. Radjainia, M, Huang, B, Bai, B, Schmitz, M, Yang, SH, Harris, PW, Griffin,
MD, Brimble, M A, Wang, Y and Mitra, AK. A highly conserved tryptophan in the
N-terminal variable domain regulates disulfide bond formation and oligomeric
assembly of adiponectin. FEBS J, 2012. 279(14):2495-507.
3. Harris PW, Hampe L, Radjainia M, Brimble MA, Mitra AK. An investigation of
the role of the adiponectin variable domain on the stability of the
collagen-like domain. Biopolymers. 2014 Jul;102(4):313-214.
4. Hampe, H, Radjainia, M, Xu, C, Harris, PWR, Bashiri, G, Goldstone, DC,
Brimble, MA, Wang, Y, Mitra, AK. Regulation and Quality Control of Adiponectin
Assembly by Endoplasmic Reticulum Chaperone ERp44. Journal of Biological
Chemistry 2015. 290: 18111-1812.
5. Hampe L, Xu C, Harris PWR, Chen J, Liu M, Middleditch M, Radjainia M,
Wang Y, Mitra AK. Synthetic peptides designed to modulate adiponectin assembly
improve obesity-related metabolic
disorders.<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28945274> Br. J Pharmacol. 2017
Sep 25. doi: 10.1111/bph.14050.
For further information, please send a current CV and contact to Dr. Alok K.
Mitra, School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New
Zealand. Tel: +64 09 923 8162, E-mail:
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Kind regards
Alok K. Mitra Ph.D.
School of Biological Sciences
Univ. of Auckland, Auckland
New Zealand
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