Graduate and Postdoctoral Research Opportunities

Updated December 2011

****Read before Applying***

Graduate students: Graduates of Canadian universities will be given priority. Due to funding constraints at this time, support only exists for graduate students with gpa >3.5/4.0. Additionally, all candidates will be encouraged to apply for scholarships to CIHR, NSERC, or an Alberta Innovates unit. International candidates will only be considered with strong academic backgrounds (>3.85/4.0) and expect to apply to Alberta Innovates for scholarships.

Postdoctoral fellows: Applicants will only be considered with relevant background and with evidence of scholarly activity in such areas through publications in international peer reviewed journals. At this time Salary funds for PDFs are presently assigned, however, if still interested the candidates are welcome to compete for fellowship support from various funding agencies to provide your own stipend. See web pages for CIHR, NSERC, or AI for possible support opportunities.

If interested in joining the Turner research group forward CV and names of at least two referees to Dr. R.J. Turner. In your covering letter please indicate the research project you are interested in and to what aspect of it you want to contribute! Spam letters and applications that will not be replied to! Spend time to look at the projects so that you can state how your background fits into the projects logically. For example we do not do not use eukaryotic organisms other than yeast in the lab so do not tell me about your plant or cell biology experience as it is irrelevant.

Research Projects

The Turner Research group performs active research in quite diverse areas of interest to Molecular Microbiology, Biochemistry, Protein Chemistry, and Physical Chemistry.

Chemical Modification of Tryptophan

An opening for PhD graduate student or a PDF with an externally funded fellowship.

Characterization of photochemically reacted products of the amino acid tryptophan. We have characterized a UV light dependent reaction between tryptophan and haloalkane compounds. The products of such reactions give unique spectroscopic properties. The spectroscopic properties and applications of these products with an emphasis for the characterization of peptides and proteins are to be explored. We are also interested in the chemical mechanism and how to use this in various chemical synthesis applications.

Individuals with a strong background in protein chemistry, physical organic chemistry, or physical chemistry would be best suited for these projects. However, those biochemists with a good background in chemistry and an interest in fluorescence spectroscopy would also find this project very enjoyable.

Phenotype and Structural Studies of Small Multidrug Resistance Proteins

Biochemical and Biophysical characterization of the small multidrug resistance proteins SugE and EmrE. The study of the folding and multimeric states of this protein in various biomembrane environments is under investigation. The folding and assembly is to be studied using biophysical methods of fluorescence, Infra-red spectroscopy, circular dichroism, size-exclusion HPLC and stop-flow methods. We are interested in the drug -ligand binding to SugE and EmrE. The project is also expected to evolve into studying the folding and multimer assembly in vivo.

Individuals interested in protein folding integral membrane proteins both in vivo and in vitro and/or an interest in biophysical methods applied to proteins would find this project attractive. Additionally, molecular microbiologists interested in transporters can also develop a project in this area.

Protein Targeting and Translocation

An opening for a PhD graduate students. The projects listed below have some degree of freedom and can be evolved to accommodate either graduate students or post-doctoral fellows.

1. Explore the nature of protein-protein interaction between the Tat translocase and the redox enzyme maturation chaperones as well as other proteins of the translocon interactome.

2. Biochemical characterization of the specificity of the twin-arginine leader binding protein DmsD and other related chaperones. Using mutagenesis methods to screen leader peptide libraries as well as mutants to DmsD to identify key residues of binding and specificity. Peptide binding assays of affinity chromatography, fluorescence, or BiaCore will be explored to screen mutants.

3. Biophysical characterization of the twin-arginine leader binding protein DmsD. Structural studies using NMR and/or protein crystallography. Other biophysical studies using calorimetry (ITC and DC), infrared spectroscopy, fluorescence, and circular dichroism are to be employed to understand the mechanism and character of the leader binding and targeting.

Individuals with backgrounds in Molecular Microbiology, Protein Chemistry or Biochemistry would be suitable for this project.

Biochemistry and Microbiology of Metal resistance and tolerance in Bacteria Biofilms

At present no specific funding is available for another person however will consider individuals that are highly competitive for external funding (see above).

We have established that Bacterial Biofilms have a time dependent tolerance to heavy metals. We are interested in exploring the genomic and proteomic signatures of bacteria or yeast exposed to metals to understand this phenomenon. There are many different projects available under this envelope. Interested parties are directed to the Turner group publications.

Individuals from a variety of backgrounds including Bioinorganic chemistry / Biogeochemistry / biofilm microbiology / biochemistry would find interesting aspects of these problems.