Research Group: Chemistry Number of Students: 1 Length of Study in Years: 4 Years Full-time Project: yes
This studentship is funded via a studentship from the China Scholarship Council. CSC is offering a monthly stipend to cover living expenses and QMUL is waving fees and hosting the student. These scholarships are available only for Chinese candidates.
Abiotic stresses such as drought and heat, contributes to > 50% of the average loss for significant crops including soybean which is a major crop food and protein supplying plant [1]. Enhancing the yield of soybean under increasingly changing climate stresses is essential for ensuring food security. The progress of developing tolerant cultivars has been slow due to the difficulty in identifying key genetic determinants of stress tolerance. Recently, nanotechnology has risen as an alternative approach to promote plant growth by mitigating stress-induced signalling pathways [2]. However, its full potential has not been discovered. Our recent studies showed that nanozymes (NZs), nanomaterials (NMs) with intrinsic antioxidant enzyme-like activities [3], can enhance plant tolerance by capturing the reactive oxygen species (ROS) which is a major cause of plant death under stress [4]. This project aims to engineer a group of molybdenum (Mo) and iron (Fe) based NZs and optimizing their ROS capturing capacity and thus their performance on protecting soybean against stress and enhance the yield. The chemical and biological fundamentals (mechanisms) underpinning the plant responses to the NZs will be elaborated in order to ensure regulatory and consumer confidence. Unlike genetic-based mechanism that are highly affected by plant species and other environmental conditions, NZs will be a robust strategy to improve plant resistance to various abiotic stresses because it is based on a mechanism that relies on the physicochemical properties of the materials per se.
[1] Francini et al., Horticulture 2019, 5, 67.
[2] Zhang et al., Nat. Plants 2021, 7, 1–9.
[3] Liang et al., Acc. Chem. Res. 2019, 52, 2190-2200
[4] Wang et al., Environ. Sci.: Nano, 2020, 7, 2930-2940
2:1/First in UG degree and preferably MSc in realted area. Background in environmental chemistry, bioinorganic chemistry or related area.
Please use the link below to apply for this project:
https://www.qmul.ac.uk/postgraduate/research/subjects/chemistry.html
Deadline for applications - 31st of January 2023
SPCS Academics: Dr Peng Zhang