SBBS Research Scholarships 2025
Enzyme discovery and engineering for biotechnological production of terpene semiochemicals for crop protection
PI: (opens in a new window)Dr Luke Johnson
Project description:
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that plant pests and diseases result in losses of between 20-40% of global crops. Future global food security relies on improving the management of insect pests and associated plant diseases. In addition, there is increasing urgency to develop new methods to control insect vectors of major infectious diseases. Terpene pheromones and other semiochemicals offer potential sustainable solutions for monitoring and control of insect pests but require biotechnological advances to yield active ingredients for application.
This PhD studentship within the group of Dr Luke Johnson at the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science will use established bioinformatic pipelines to discover novel terpene synthase enzymes to meet the challenge of producing terpene semiochemicals for use in agriculture.
Volatile terpene semiochemicals are known repellents, attractants, aggregation and sex pheromones. The PhD project will discover (RNA-seq, bioinformatics) and isolate enzymes from insects involved in pheromone biosynthesis, and from plants involved in seedling attraction. Enzymes will be characterised (analytical SEC, SDM and X-ray protein crystallography) and mechanisms elucidated using chemoenzymatic methods established by Dr. Luke Johnson (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, 59, 8486). Biocatalyst expression will be optimised and enzymes engineered with high-throughput screening. The PhD project will look to maximise production of terpene products by developing microbial production using synthetic biology approaches and metabolic engineering. This will facilitate bioreactor scale-up for semiochemical production. The project will culminate with the investigation of insect behaviour towards isolated semiochemicals with collaborators and will work alongside established agrochemical companies to translate primary research into applications for crop protection.
The PhD offers an opportunity to develop technical skills in natural product research including recombinant DNA technology, mining of bioinformatic databases, enzyme production and engineering, analytical (bio)chemical methods (e.g. GC-MS, NMR, HPLC), microbial strain engineering, and natural product isolation and characterisation. This is an interdisciplinary biotechnology project and will form links across UCD and the agricultural industry to maximise research impact. There will be opportunities to present findings at conferences and publish in peer-reviewed journals.
Experience in molecular biology, enzymology, structural biology and/or microbial engineering is ideal. Additional experience in analytical methods (GC-MS, HPLC and/or NMR, bioinformatics) is desirable.
Key publications
Johnson, L. A., Dunbabin, A., Benton, J. C. R., Mart, R. J., & Allemann, R. K. (2020). Modular Chemoenzymatic Synthesis of Terpenes and their Analogues. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 59(22), 8486–8490. (opens in a new window)https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202001744
Srivastava, P. L., Johnson, L. A., Miller, D. J., & Allemann, R. K. (2024). Production of non-natural terpenoids through chemoenzymatic synthesis using substrate analogs (pp. 207–230). (opens in a new window)https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.mie.2024.03.015
Johnson, L. A., & Allemann, R. K. (2025). Engineering terpene synthases and their substrates for the biocatalytic production of terpene natural products and analogues. Chemical Communications. (opens in a new window)https://doi.org/10.1039/D4CC05785F
Scholarship
The position is available from January 2026 - funded by UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Sciences with following conditions:
- EU tuition fee + €25,000 tax-free stipend per annum over four years.
- Each student will be enrolled in a structured PhD programme, associated with SBBS.
- Each student is required to demonstrate in appropriate laboratory practicals as part of their funded scholarship. Demonstrating hours and lab practicals are detailed and assigned by the SBBS Demonstrating Committee (maximum hours: 288 per annum). Students will be remunerated at standard UCD demonstrating rates.
- (For more information: https://www.ucd.
ie/sbbs/study/ )researchprogrammes/
Application
- EU/UK applicants only
Applicants are invited to apply with a CV, details for two references and a 1-page covering letter detailing the motivation for applying for the project and previous laboratory experience to Dr Luke Johnson (opens in a new window)luke.johnson@ucd.ie
For informal queries please contact Dr Luke Johnson ((opens in a new window)luke.johnson@ucd.ie) with PhD studentship in terpene semiochemicals as the subject.
Deadline for applications: 8th October 2025
The shortlisted candidates will be called for an interview in October 2025. The successful candidate is expected to start in January 2026.