PhD Studentship: Biorecovery of Rare Earth Elements using Natural and Engineered Lanthanophores

Award summary

100% Home fees covered and a minimum tax-free annual living allowance of £31,805 per year for students who are eligible for Home fee status.

Overview

Technologically critical rare-earth elements (REEs) are essential to key sectors in the modern economy including the electronic, energy, pharmaceutical and automobile industries. Despite their importance, these critical elements are notoriously difficult to isolate from natural sources, with widely used hydrometallurgical liquid–liquid extraction methods reliant on the extensive use of organic solvents and toxic extractants.

For these reasons, there is a pressing need to develop new biobased extraction methods to support the exponentially growing global demand for REEs. Lanthanophores are a family of recently identified secreted bacterial proteins that facilitate the acquisition, transport, and integration of REEs into microbial metabolic processes. During this interdisciplinary project, which combines microbiology, structural biology, AI guided protein engineering and chemical analysis, you will establish the molecular basis of REE binding and discrimination in naturally evolved lanthanophores, establishing the ‘rules’ of REE acquisition in biology.

With this knowledge in hand, you will then use AI guided protein engineering to explore the feasibility of developing ‘designer’ lanthanophores. Finally, natural and engineered lanthanophores will be integrated into our established flow system to investigate their capacity to recover REEs from environmental samples. This project will be conducted in partnership with scientists at the UK’s national synchrotron facility Diamond Light Source, making use of recently established instrumentation for the study of REEs in biology.

Number of awards

1

Start date

1st October 2026

Award duration

4 years

Application closing date

Friday 17^th July 2026

Sponsor

DFA NERC

Study at Newcastle University

Name of supervisor/s

Prof Paul Race, Professor of Biotechnology, Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University

Dr Jem Stach

Dr Jon Sellars

Prof Justin Perry

Dr Christian Orr

Eligibility Criteria

Due to funding restrictions, this project is only open to students eligible for Home rate fees.

You must have, or expect to gain, a minimum 2:1 Honours degree or international equivalent in a subject relevant to the proposed PhD project, including Chemistry, Biochemistry, Molecular or Structural Biology, or a related discipline.

The studentship covers fees at the Home rate (UK and EU applicants with pre-settled/settled status and meet the residency criteria.)

How to apply

You must apply through the University’s Apply to Newcastle Portal 

Once registered select ‘Create a Postgraduate Application’.  

Use ‘Course Search’ to identify your programme of study:  

• Search for the ‘Course Title’ using the programme code: 8020F
• Research Area: Biotechnology
• Select PhD Biotechnology (full time) as the programme of study 

You will then need to provide the following information in the ‘Further Details’ section:  

• A ‘Personal Statement’ (this is a mandatory field) - upload a document or write a statement directly into the application form 
• The studentship code in the ‘Studentship/Partnership Reference’ field: SNES311
• When prompted regarding your research proposal - select ‘Write Proposal’. You should then type in the title of the research project from this advert. You do not need to upload a research proposal.

In the ‘Supporting Documentation’ section please upload:

• your CV 

You must submit one application per studentship; you cannot apply for multiple studentships on one application.

Contact Details

Paul Race (paul.race1@newcastle.ac.uk)

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