World-Leading Scholarship in Biology and Chemistry

Project

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are projected to cause more deaths than cancer does by 2050, unless novel drugs with innovative modes of action are developed. In 2018, the World Health Organisation published a list of 12 pathogenic bacteria against which novel antibiotics acting on new targets should be prioritised to combat the threat posed by antibiotic resistance. Acinetobacter baumannii was at the top of that list. One of the main infection types with A. baumannii is pneumonia. To make matters worse, A. baumannii has acquired resistance to practically all available antibiotics, including carbapenems, a class of last-resort drugs. Globally, 44% of A. baumannii isolated from patients are multidrug-resistant. The situation is even more dismal in developing countries, which bear the highest number of A. baumannii-related deaths, with 70% of samples being multidrug-resistant in the Middle East and Latin America. Besides high mortality rates, multidrug-resistant A. baumannii infections also impose a significant economic burden due to higher costs associated with longer hospital stays and potential long-lasting disability. There is clearly an urgent need for more efficient antibiotics to treat A. baumannii pneumonia, but not any type of antibiotic.

The A. baumannii enzyme ATP phosphoribosyltransferase (ATPPRT) carries out the first step of histidine biosynthesis. Histidine is an allosteric inhibitor of ATPPRT. ATPPRT activity is essential for A. baumannii to cause pneumonia because there is very little histidine in the lungs, far less than the bacterium needs. Therefore, drugs that can inhibit ATPPRT can stop A. baumannii on its tracks. Also, ATPPRT is absent in humans (we do not make histidine) and is not an essential enzyme in many other bacteria, so drugs targeting ATPPRT can spare human proteins and be specific to A. baumannii. The da Silva lab have studied ATPPRT for years, generating data that we used to design and produce molecules (with our collaborator Dr Emilia Oueis at Khalifa University) that bind ATPPRT and stop it from working. This project, co-supervised by Dr Rafael G. da Silva and Dr John Mitchell, will use cutting edge enzymology, structural biology, computational chemistry and machine learning approaches to uncover the mode of action of these inhibitors and harness the information to improve their potency and efficacy. We will also test the inhibitors against A. baumannii cultures with and without histidine to evaluate their bactericidal ability, coupling the chemistry/biochemistry directly with the desired biological effect.

The student will master skills in drug design, enzymology, computational chemistry and machine learning that are highly sought after in industry and academia. The successful candidate will have, or be about to have, a 1^st-class degree in Chemistry with a strong Biochemistry foundation or a 1^st-class degree in Biochemistry with a strong Chemistry foundation.

Value of award (per year)

Full-fees award and stipend. The stipend will be paid at the current UK Research Council rate (£19,237 in 2024-2025). The stipend will be paid pro-rata to part-time students.

The scholarships do not cover any continuation, extension, or resubmission period/fees, Visa fees, Immigration Health Surcharge, IELTS fees, costs for travel to and from the UK or research training grant or another equivalent award for research expenses.

Duration of award

Up to 3.5 years (full-time) or 7.0 years (part-time). Scholarship holders will be expected to have submitted their thesis for examination by the end of that period. The award term excludes the continuation period and any extension periods.

At what stage of my course application can I apply for this scholarship?

Please apply for the scholarship after you have submitted your application for a place at St Andrews.  You do not need to wait until you have received an offer of a place before applying for the scholarship.

Additional criteria

You must have applied for a PhD programme at St Andrews.

You must not already (i) hold a doctoral degree; or (ii) be matriculated for a doctoral degree at the University of St Andrews or another institution.

As part of the scholarship application you will be required to upload a personal statement. This should serve as a cover letter for the research project application as a whole, and should include:

• An outline of your suitability for the project (project criteria can be found in the "Eligibility" and "Project Description" sections above).
• Why the project interests you.
• What you would bring to the project in terms of previous skills and expertise.
• Any ideas that you may have for the realisation of the project.

How to apply

1. Apply for admission as a doctoral student beginning in the academic year 2025-26. Please apply to the School of Biology. See the advice on Research programmes. After submitting your PhD application, you must allow at least three working days for processing and issue of your log-in details before you can apply for the scholarship. Once you have received an email confirming your access to the My application portal: 
2. Apply for the scholarship, which is available through the World-Leading Scholarship 1: Novel drugs against superbugs application form. You can access this application through the Scholarships and funding catalogue in the Scholarships and Funding section of My application. 
   • Enter the catalogue by following the instructions in the email, then choosing Scholarships and funding (under 'Useful links') and then clicking View the scholarships and funding catalogue.
   • Select 2025/6 as the Academic Year and click ‘Refresh list’.
   • Find the World-Leading St Andrews Doctoral Scholarship that you wish to apply for in the list of scholarships (using the filter box if necessary), click Apply and complete the application form.
   • You can also use the catalogue to search and apply for other scholarships for which you are eligible. 

Scholarship application form guidance

If you are a current student at St Andrews, you can access Scholarships and Funding through MySaint. However, you should wait until after you have applied for your intended postgraduate programme before doing so, to ensure that the scholarship application is linked to that course.

Terms and conditions

Please read the University of St Andrews scholarships terms and conditions (opens in new tab) 

If you apply to this scholarship, details from your course application may be passed to the selection panel solely for the purpose of merit-based assessment. 

When will I know the outcome?

The outcome of your scholarship application will be available on View or continue my funding applications in the Scholarships and Funding section of My Application within two months of the application deadline.