UCL CMMP Summer Projects 2015

CMMP Summer Projects offered in 2015

Please note that this is not a complete list of available projects and you should also consider getting in touch with potential supervisors directly. You can identify a potential supervisor by talking with your lecturers and tutors, and by reading the researcher biographies and research highlights on the web sites listed on the main summer projects page

PI: Ian Robinson
Project: Chirality of super-resolution chromosome images
Student: TBC
Description of the project:
This project will be to search for evidence of chirality in super-resolution 3D images of human chromosomes. At the molecular level of DNA and histone proteins, the structures are highly chiral: the DNA helix is almost always right handed and it iis always wrapped the same way around the histones. But at the level of visible light resolution, chrirality has never been detected. New STORM images of the 3D locations of individual dye molecules potentially contain this information, which is the subject of this summer project.

The project will be carried out in our Harwell lab, where the microscopes are operated. Depending on scheduling the student may participate in the measurements also.

PI: Ian Robinson
Project: Micromanipulation of Chromosomes
Student: TBC
Description of the project:
This project will aim to mechanically separate the individual chromatids of chromosmes viewed under a high-resolution microscope. A remote-controlled micromanipulator system will be implemented to separate the halves of a chemically weakened structure, then cross-link its proteins with chemical fixation. The goal of the project is to image the strucures before placing them into a delivery system for genome sequencing experiments using the Hi-C methodology. Since all of the hardware is automated, some of the steps can be programmed once they become familiar, so the project would be interesting for a student interested in robotics.

This project will be located in our Harwell laboratory.