Computational approaches to mining the rumen micro biome for novel antimicrobials

A PhD fellowship funded through the Life Sciences Research Network, Wales is available to work on an inter-institutional project between the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS), Aberystwyth University and the School of Biological Sciences, Bangor University. The project will involve the computational and functional genomics investigation of natural microbial communities, such as in the Rumen, for novel antimicrobial agents.

Background: The alarming increase in antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria, coupled with the decrease in drug discovery rates, is now a serious medical challenge that requires novel approaches to identify new novel therapeutic compounds such as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). Generally, AMPs are produced by microbes in response to competitive stress for limited resources and our team in the Institute of Biological, Environment and Rural Sciences (IBERS) at Aberystwyth University have led the field in identifying AMPs from natural anaerobic environments, such as the rumen of cattle. We now have an exciting Ph.D. studentship opportunity for an ambitious candidate to join our team to develop novel computational approaches to identifying AMPs from metagenomic sequencing data to compliment our on-going work.