Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

Anna Peacock’s group’s research is focused on both the roles of metals in biological and medicinal chemistry and de novo peptide design (essentially the ‘design from scratch’ of a peptide sequence which folds to a predictable secondary, tertiary and quaternary structure). They are particularly interested in the helix-turn-helix and helix-loop-helix motifs, in which two α-helices are linked by artificial inorganic ‘loops’. The α-helices are designed to bind through non-covalent interactions to nucleobases in the major groove of DNA and the ‘loop’ regions are responsible for preorganising the α-helices so as to enhance DNA binding. They are also interested in the design of challenging metal ion binding sites in the interior of coiled coils, for example, the preparation of Gd coiled coils for MRI.

Dr Peacock is interested in supervising doctoral researchers in the following areas:

De novo design of lanthanide peptide coiled coils
DNA binding peptide sensors