These prestigious studentships are offered to up to seven students each year.
The total amount of the award is £4,000. This is broken down into £1000 payable to the student on commencement of the studentship after a successful interview. If the student opts to work in a lab over summer then £1500 is payable to the student in June/July with £500 going towards lab costs. The final £1000 is payable to the student upon satisfactory reports (or presentation of poster at the Network Meeting) in the December.
The scheme is designed to be flexible. A student can propose to:
- work in a research laboratory over the summer vacation (not in a lab run by their mentor or at their place of study) to gain valuable experience. Research projects can be in any area of plant science.
- provide an opportunity to travel to, and attendance at, plant-related conferences
- purchase books or subscriptions to journals/scientific magazines
- fund the cost of field work.
Successful students are eligible to compete for a Sainsbury PhD Studentship starting in October 2013 and will be invited to attend the 2012 Gatsby Plant Science Network meeting and the 2013 Gatsby training weekend.
Please supply a covering letter (including why you are interested in plant science, what you intend to do with the funding and what you ultimately hope to achieve) and your cv, to Julian Hibberd at
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by 15th February 2012.
Adam Rutherford meets the Cambridge iGEM2011 team, and Cat McMurran describes the use of squid reflectins as a biological source of iridescence. The iGEM team built reflectin biobricks for expression of the protein and production of iridescent films that response dynamically to changes in hydration. A video clip of the interview can be found here at the BBC website. The full programme is broadcast on Feb 17th at 9:30pm on BBC2, or can be played back on the BBC iPlayer. More information about the iGEM competition at the University of Cambridge can be found at: http://www.synbio.org.uk/cambridge/cambridge-igem-teams.html
The UK government announced the intention to establish Synthetic Biology as a major initiative in the UK.
"Synthetic biology has been driven by developments in next generation sequencing, DNA synthesis, and systems engineering. It is a potential platform technology with possible applications including bio-energy, industrial biotechnology and chemicals. I have asked leading researchers and business experts in a group chaired by Dr Lionel Clarke of Shell to produce a synthetic biology roadmap to set out the timeframe and actions to establish a world leading synthetic biology industry in the UK. They should report in the Spring after which we intend to convene a new Synthetic Biology Leadership Council to look at how we can deliver that road map."
See full text of David Willet's speech (Cabinet Minister responsible for Universities and Science in the UK, Policy Exchange, London, Jan 2012)
