My masters year consisted of a taught section and a research component consisting of 3 mini-projects designed to develop theoretical and experimental skills in a research environment. I passed the masters with distinction in September 2013 to progress onto the PhD.

Mini Projects

Mini Project 1: Exploring Scanning Ion Conductance Micdoscopy as a Tool for Topography and Electrochemical Imaging Including the Development of Phase Imaging. D. Perry, K. McKelvey, P. Unwin

During this project I explored how the information recorded during SICM scans contained more than just topographical information and instead could be used to gain information about the electrochemistry of different surfaces including glass and Poly-L-Lycene. On top of this, it was shown that the phase information, recorded during SICM approaches and scans, could be used to map a surface in a novel way.

Mini Project 2: A systematic approach to coarse-grained modelling of bilayer self-assembly. D.Perry, S.Habershon

During this project we explored a new systematic method of coarse graining using DPPC as a model system. This involved performing 1-body and 2-body atomistic simulations and using the generated trajectories, producing a potential that would hopefully capture the full dynamics of the system.

Mini Project 3: Structural and functional characterization of a polyprenyl/dolichyl phosphomannose synthase involved in bacterial protein glycosylation D.Perry, S.Benson, M.Tosin.

In this project we started to develop a protocol for the purification of dolichyl phosphomannose synthase that is pure enough for crystallisation with the goal of producing the first x-ray crystal image of such an enzyme.