A Diamond–University of Sheffield Partner PhD Studentship
Diamond Supervisors: Dr Gabriel Karras and Prof. Sofia Diaz-Moreno
Academic Supervisor: Prof. Julia A. Weinstein
The Scientific Premise
To address the grand challenges of our era in an effective and timely manner, we must go beyond the current state of the art and employ synergy from different areas of science. The PhD will combine inorganic photochemistry, ultrafast laser spectroscopy and time-resolved structural methods to develop new antibacterial metal complexes, which kill bacteria under visible light.
Antimicrobial resistance is one of the key challenges of the modern times. We believe that photochemistry can contribute to the solution. Transition metal complexes have already been widely used in light-driven applications, such as photocatalysis, artificial photosynthesis and photodynamic therapies. The PhD aims to develop complexes of cheap, available metals as photosynthesisers for killing bacteria with light. This works by a complex absorbing light, populating its triplet excited state, which then interacts with oxygen, producing highly reactive singlet oxygen, which causes cell death. We have recently demonstrated the first example of a heteroleptic Cu(I) complex that kills bacteria in water under light, and which meets the World Health Organization's classification as 'highly protective'. [1,2]
To develop this field of metal complexes as efficient photo-antibacterials, we need to understand their light-induced properties and correlate these with their antibacterial activity. The PhD project combines X-ray studies, optical studies and antibacterial studies of the existing in Prof Weinstein’s group library of promising photosensitisers to answer this question.
You will master ultrafast optical spectroscopies (transient absorption, infrared, fluorescence) in the Lord Porter Laser Laboratory at Sheffield, where the compounds will be studied prior to X-ray studies at Diamond. The antibacterial tests will be conducted by our collaborators in the Medical School at the University of Sheffield. You will also master time-resolved X-ray spectroscopies at Diamond Light source. You will be part of an interdisciplinary, international, dynamic team, travel the world, work at national and international large-scale facilities (and learn how to write proposals for beamtime).
1. Appleby et al., Materials Advances, 2020, 3417;
2. Appleby et al., Faraday Disc. 2023, 391.
Any questions – please contact:
Key Objective
The objective of this PhD programme is the development and characterisation of organometallic compounds with long-lived excited triplet states based on earth-abundant transition metals, primarily aimed for the photodynamic killing of bacteria.
Training in State-of-the-Art Techniques
During this programme, you will be trained in organometallic molecular synthesis, static and transient absorption spectroscopies at fast and ultrafast timescales using optical and X-ray lasers, in synchrotron radiation, data analysis and modelling using state-of-the-art codes and high-performance computing infrastructure, and in writing scientific papers and proposals. You will additionally be encouraged to collaborate with other researchers in the University of Sheffield and at Diamond Light Source and will be supported in doing so.
Time Division
The student will spend 50% of their time at the University of Sheffield and 50% at Diamond Light Source Ltd, the UK’s national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire. It is expected that the student will relocate to the area when based at the synchrotron.
Attributes of Suitable Applicants
(1) You should have at least a 2:1 degree in chemistry, physics, engineering or a related discipline.
(2) Ability to work in an interdisciplinary, international environment.
(3) You should be able to work independently and be a strong team player, and willing to travel, nationally and internationally.
This project is jointly funded for four years by the University of Sheffield and Diamond Light Source Ltd. Successful students will receive a tax-free stipend of no less than the standard UKRI stipend rate, currently set at £19,237 for the academic year 2024/25, which will be adjusted annually, plus a £2,000 per annum stipend top-up.
Diamond Light Source is the UK's national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire.
Copyright © 2022 Diamond Light Source
Diamond Light Source Ltd
Diamond House
Harwell Science & Innovation Campus
Didcot
Oxfordshire
OX11 0DE
Diamond Light Source® and the Diamond logo are registered trademarks of Diamond Light Source Ltd
Registered in England and Wales at Diamond House, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0DE, United Kingdom. Company number: 4375679. VAT number: 287 461 957. Economic Operators Registration and Identification (EORI) number: GB287461957003.