PhD Studentship: N-Heterocyclic Carbene-Stabilised Gold Nanoclusters for Intracellular Catalysis

Primary Supervisor - Dr Sophie Thomas

The ability to perform selective chemical reactions inside living cells offers exciting opportunities for chemical biology, biotechnology, and medicine. This PhD project will explore the design, synthesis, and biological application of atomically precise gold nanoclusters stabilised by N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands for use as intracellular catalysts. 

NHC ligands form exceptionally strong bonds to gold and provide a versatile platform for tuning nanocluster stability, solubility, and catalytic activity. The successful candidate will develop water-soluble NHC ligands and use them to prepare well-defined gold nanoclusters with controlled sizes and surface properties. The project will investigate how ligand structure influences nanocluster formation, stability, catalytic performance, cellular uptake, and behaviour in complex biological environments.

Emphasis will be placed on exploiting these nanoclusters as catalysts for abiotic reactions within living cells, including the activation of fluorogenic probes and therapeutic prodrugs. The modular nature of NHC ligands will also enable the incorporation of targeting functionalities, such as antibodies, peptides, carbohydrates, or other biomolecule-recognition motifs, allowing future generations of nanoclusters to be directed towards specific cell types, intracellular compartments, or disease-associated biomarkers. Understanding how catalyst design affects intracellular reactivity will provide fundamental insights into the emerging field of bioorthogonal catalysis. 

This highly interdisciplinary project combines synthetic inorganic and organometallic chemistry, nanomaterials science, spectroscopy, and cell biology. Training will include the synthesis of NHC ligands and gold nanoclusters, characterisation by NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, UV-Vis and fluorescence spectroscopies and electron microscopies, together with cell culture, fluorescence imaging and biological evaluation. 

The project is suitable for ambitious applicants with a background in chemistry, pharmaceutical sciences, materials science, or a related discipline, who are looking to work at the chemistry-biology interface. Experience in synthetic chemistry is desirable but not essential. The outcomes may lead to new catalytic nanomedicines and chemical tools capable of controlling molecular processes directly within living systems.

Entry requirements

The standard minimum entry requirement is 2:1 in Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemical Biology, Biochemistry, Materials Science, Nanotechnology, or a closely related discipline.

Mode of study

Full-time

Start date

1 October 2027

Additional Funding Information

This PhD project is in a competition for a Faculty of Science funded studentship. Funding is available to UK applicants and comprises ‘home’ tuition fees and an annual stipend for 3 years. The current UEA / institutional PhD stipend rate is £21,805 and will be subject to any agreed inflationary uplift for 2027/28.