Overview
Current ResearchThesis Title: Optoplasmonic Sensing of Enzyme Mechanisms
Supervisor(s): Frank Vollmer (Exeter), Stefan Bagby (Bath)
We hope to begin studying the dynamics of Adenosine Kinase (Adk) and a-Synuclein by method of Whispering Gallery Mode (WGM) optoplasmonics. My first year was spent at the University of Bath undertaking optimisation of protein purification of several variants of Adk and a-Synuclein, followed by charecterisation of these proteins by several methods- include kinetic studies, circular dichroism and dynamic light scattering. The next investigations to be carried out were to evaluate methods of protein binding to gold nanoparticles, required for plasmonically-enhanced WGM. Several methods of binding were found for Adk.
Now based in Exeter, the first detection of Adk turnover has been attempted. We are currently evaluating these signals in order to identify the profiles of turnover events. Other investigations will focus on inhibitor binding behaviour, as well as other investigations into improving the laser setup.
This PhD project is part of the Vollmer Laboratory of Nano and Quantum Biosensing and the Molecular Mechanics Initative
Funding AcknowledgementsResearch is funded as part of the SWBio Doctoral Training Program with UKRI BBSRC funding.
Academic Qualifications
2017-2020 BSc Biochemistry at the University of Bath: First Class (Hons.)
Undergraduate Project: Optimising the Expression of a Surface Binding Hydrophobin for Autoimmune Biosensors (Supervised by Stefan Bagby, PhD; and Mohsina Bashir).
Publications
Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.
2024
- Houghton MC, Kashanian SV, Derrien TL, Masuda K, Vollmer F. (2024) Whispering-Gallery Mode Optoplasmonic Microcavities: From Advanced Single-Molecule Sensors and Microlasers to Applications in Synthetic Biology, ACS Photonics, volume 11, no. 3, pages 892-903, DOI:10.1021/acsphotonics.3c01570. [PDF]
2023
- Toropov NA, Houghton MC, Yu D, Vollmer F. (2023) Thermo-optoplasmonic single-molecule sensing on optical microcavities, DOI:10.1101/2023.12.13.571444. [PDF]
2022
- Toropov N, Houghton M, Yu D, Vollmer F. (2022) A New Detecting Mechanism of Single-Molecule Optoplasmonic Sensors, Optical Sensors and Sensing Congress 2022 (AIS, LACSEA, Sensors, ES), DOI:10.1364/sensors.2022.sw3e.6.