EastBio: Targeting Proteasome Assembly to Uncover Cancer Vulnerabilities

EastBio: Targeting Proteasome Assembly to Uncover Cancer Vulnerabilities

Research Question and Fit

The distinctive opportunity here is to use a living-cell reporter of proteasome assembly as the starting point for discovery and mechanistic cell biology. Adrien Rousseau’s laboratory would work with Dundee’s Drug Discovery Unit, while Gopal Sapkota provides second-supervisor expertise in cell signalling and protein regulation. The appeal is the connection between quantitative assays and explaining cellular adaptation. The central question is whether a reporter change reflects a specific assembly effect, how that relates to protein degradation, and whether the consequences differ meaningfully between cancer and other cells. Four-year EastBio maintenance and explicit Dundee international-fee-gap support provide a positive competitive funding route. The deadline is 16 November 2026, date only; the saved exact-project record gives a September 2027 start, differing from the network’s 1 October wording. Current exact project.

Research Problem and Doctoral Work

Assembly is a distinct research question

Proteasomes help maintain protein homeostasis by degrading unwanted proteins. The project asks whether interfering with their formation or stability exposes cancer-cell vulnerabilities, rather than simply reproducing inhibition of an already assembled proteasome’s catalytic activity. The advertised 26S-splitNanoLuc reporter monitors assembly in living cells, with high-throughput screening and subsequent biochemical and cellular validation planned alongside the Drug Discovery Unit. Later work would examine protein degradation, stress, survival and adaptation. These are linked but distinct endpoints. Advertised research.

A lower luminescent signal alone cannot establish the full mechanism. Reporter behaviour, protein abundance and general cell health can influence interpretation; an assembly-associated observation also does not by itself measure degradation of cellular substrates. Likewise, reduced survival would need context before being called cancer-selective. The useful intellectual progression is from a reliable observation to evidence about assembly, functional consequences and biological specificity, without collapsing those stages into one conclusion.

What is established and what remains developmental

UKRI’s earlier frontier-research announcement independently identifies Rousseau’s 26S-NanoLuc project as developing an assay to quantify assembly for screening. It corroborates the research lineage. It is a funding announcement, not a complete peer-reviewed validation of the exact current 26S-splitNanoLuc implementation. The earlier bounded evidence review did not independently match a full original publication for that precise reporter; this is not proof that none exists. Ask for the benchmarking paper or validation dataset and clarification of what assembly step the reporter captures. UKRI platform announcement.

Potential doctoral outputs include well-characterised chemical research tools, a quantitative account of adaptation, or a reproducible framework separating reporter effects from biological mechanism. These are possible outcomes inferred from the aims. Selective molecules and future combination strategies remain research goals. A smaller mechanistic result could still make a valuable thesis if broad discovery is unsuccessful; a fallback should be discussed before committing to a screening-led plan. No clinical effectiveness or patient benefit has been demonstrated by this opportunity.

School, Programme and Field Context

The degree would be pursued at the University of Dundee, Faculty of Life Sciences, with research in the Rousseau laboratory at the MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit. The Drug Discovery Unit is an internal collaborating research environment, not a separate employer or degree-awarding university. Dundee’s Life Sciences research-degree page establishes a PhD route; the individual registration code and exact dates should be confirmed through the funded-programme process. The page explicitly requires the relevant pre-application before the general university form. Life Sciences research degrees.

Relevant subject evidence comes from REF 2021: Dundee reports first place in Biological Sciences under the Times Higher Education analysis, with 71% of activity world-leading and 28% internationally excellent. This historical subject assessment supports the scientific environment; it is not a current overall ranking or a supervisor score. A strong surrounding research culture does not allocate equipment time or personal supervision automatically. REF subject assessment.

EastBio adds cohort-based scientific and professional training to four years of research. Its current framework concentrates core training in years one and two, with a stronger research focus in years three and four. The advertised mandatory three-month internship outside academia broadens experience; the placement organisation and individual schedule are not specified. University quality rules require at least a main and second supervisor, while the project promises supportive supervision and wider student-network participation. Agree the actual meeting pattern and each supervisor’s role rather than deriving these from a generic minimum. Host programme, Training overview, Research-degree quality code.

Supervisor and Lab Assessment

Current roles and complementary resources

Official pages identify Dr Adrien Rousseau as Principal Investigator/Senior Lecturer and principal supervisor, and Professor Gopal Sapkota as second supervisor. Rousseau studies the relationship between phosphorylation, protein degradation and proteasome homeostasis using yeast and mammalian systems. Sapkota’s complementary programme concerns disease signalling and protein regulation through phosphorylation and ubiquitylation. Public laboratory addresses are a.rousseau@dundee.ac.uk and g.sapkota@dundee.ac.uk. Rousseau profile, Rousseau lab, Sapkota lab.

The exact advertisement names Drug Discovery Unit collaboration. Its official description confirms integrated assay development, high-throughput screening, cell biology, medicinal chemistry, structural biology, computation and pharmacokinetics capabilities. This supports the plausibility of the partnership, but does not specify this student’s screening capacity, compound access, analytical support or budget. Collaboration is not a company employment or internship guarantee. Drug Discovery Unit.

Three genuine recent Rousseau originals

Assembly and selective translation: 2023 online / 2024 issue

Williams, Winaya, Joshua and Rousseau, iScience 27(1), 108732. The paper appeared online on 14 December 2023, with the January 2024 issue. Its original summary links phase separation, selective messenger-RNA translation and stress-dependent proteasome assembly in budding yeast. It supplies evidence that assembly responds to cellular adaptation rather than remaining fixed. Available evidence here comprises the complete original summary, selected introduction and results passages, and publication contributions; the full methods and supplementary materials were not reviewed. The evidence is a yeast mechanism, not validation of a selective human-cancer inhibitor or the advertised reporter. Original study.

Actin and stress homeostasis: 2022 original

Williams and colleagues, Nature Cell Biology 24, 1077–1087, 23 June 2022. Rousseau is a senior coauthor. This study links actin organisation and local translation to proteasome homeostasis under stress. The available review covers selected original main-text, results and discussion passages, including biological-replication and statistical-analysis reporting. The authors report no prospective sample-size determination, randomisation or blinding. This should inform the interpretation of the work rather than invalidate the mechanism automatically. It supports expertise in connecting molecular events with functional readouts, while the yeast-to-human-cancer transfer remains a distinct question. Original study.

Parallel signalling and assembly chaperones: 2024 original

Williams and colleagues, Journal of Cell Science 137, jcs261892, 2024. Rousseau is a corresponding coauthor. The original abstract and selected introduction/discussion show that parallel signalling requirements regulate assembly-chaperone production in yeast; one activated branch is insufficient on its own. For this PhD, the relevance is conceptual: adaptation can depend on a combination of processes, so a single correlated signal may not explain survival. The evidence summarized here comprises the complete original abstract and selected original indexed passages, not all results or supplementary materials. Original study.

These are three distinct Rousseau-coauthored originals, not three papers jointly authored by both proposed supervisors. They establish a related mechanistic foundation but do not establish this project’s cancer selectivity. The existing record does not document a complete supplementary-data or raw-data audit for any of them. Ask how mammalian-model expertise, compound interpretation and quantitative assay training will be divided between the supervisors and DDU staff.

Funding, Application, and Living Cost

The supplied project funding explicitly covers four years of UKRI-standard maintenance and UK tuition, with Dundee paying the international-fee difference. The project was advertised as a funded competition open to Home and international students; whether applications are still being accepted is unknown. EastBio’s current FAQ independently states that successful international candidates will not pay the international tuition top-up. This is a clear competitive full-fee route for eligible Chinese applicants. The 30% overseas limit concerns annual network intake, not the number of places in this project or an individual success rate. An award is competitive, but the absence of an already-issued personal award is not a reason to dismiss the opportunity. Dundee EastBio, EastBio funding FAQ.

The £21,805 annual figure refers to 2026/27; the personal 2027/28 rate and payment dates remain unconfirmed. Host research support is £5,000 annually in years one to three and £1,000 in year four, separate from living income. The FAQ excludes visa and immigration-health costs. The saved official charges are £558 for a Student visa and £776 per visa-year for the student health surcharge. Four years alone would mean £3,104 in surcharge, before additional validity and rounding. UKRI rates, Student visa, Health surcharge.

For living costs, Dundee’s headline £10,000–12,000 covers 39 weeks, not an entire doctoral year. Its Q1 2026 one-bedroom rental average of £645 monthly and September 2025 non-rent guidance of £700–800 monthly produce an illustrative twelve-month solo scenario of £16,140–17,340. Compared with the dated £21,805 stipend reference, this leaves £4,465–5,665 before relocation and immigration costs. These mixed-date estimates are planning references, not a 2027 quotation or savings guarantee. Official living-cost guidance.

Submit the EastBio form and transcripts to EASTBIOapplications@dundee.ac.uk, after completing the EDI survey and copying its unique response identifier into the form. Two referees should return the mandatory reference template to the same address by 16 November 2026. No closing time or timezone is stated, and no automatic grace period is established. This is Dundee’s process, not Edinburgh’s Euclid route. The exact project’s September 2027 start and the network’s 1 October should be reconciled in writing before registration or travel commitments. Application guidance, Network selection and start.

Applicant Fit and Preparation

The current project expects a relevant Honours-equivalent or master’s degree. The advertised technologies are training opportunities rather than a demand to arrive proficient in every assay, imaging and genetic method. Research experience showing quantitative interpretation, discrimination between alternative explanations and reproducibility is particularly relevant. Experience with cellular or biochemical data would be useful to discuss; these are evidence-based preparation suggestions rather than additional entry requirements.

EastBio generally accepts an upper-second-class undergraduate degree or international equivalent without universally requiring a master’s. Applicants below that undergraduate threshold may still be assessed with a relevant master’s or substantial relevant experience. Dundee’s China-specific PGR guidance separately normally requires a master’s-level qualification from a good university and evidence of research experience. Chinese applicants should ask the host how the two layers apply to their qualifications. The guidance does not supply a universal percentage or university-ranking cutoff, and the network’s general rule should not be interpreted as an automatic country-specific waiver. China guidance, EastBio eligibility.

The Life Sciences PhD page lists IELTS 6.5 overall, Reading and Listening 5.5, Speaking and Writing 6.0. This is programme-level evidence; the final offer and accepted alternatives govern the individual case. EastBio permits an application before the English test, with language conditions potentially outstanding. An English-medium Chinese degree is not an automatic exemption demonstrated here. Non-English academic records require official English translations. References may be academic or professional but not from the proposed project supervisors, and only one EastBio project across the network may be chosen. Programme English requirements, Application documents and selection limit.

Next Actions and Questions to Verify

Before selecting this as the single EastBio application, ask Rousseau what evidence benchmarks the current reporter, which part of the screening and mechanistic work is ready, and how Dundee will assess the China qualification route. Complete the EDI and reference requirements well before the stated date; a later EDI survey closing date is not an application extension.

At interview, discuss how assembly, catalytic activity, substrate degradation and survival will be interpreted separately. Ask whether human-model comparisons can address specificity, how negative discovery results would remain informative, and who supplies quantitative analysis and DDU mentorship. These questions help establish whether the research and training arrangements are credible.

Before accepting, obtain the actual registration code, resolve September versus October, and confirm funded dates, maintenance, tuition-gap coverage, resource allocation and any extension costs. Check immigration and any offer-specific ATAS requirement; this review has not established the individual subject code’s ATAS status. ATAS rules.

Career and Transferable Skills

The transferable value is in assay validation, quantitative cell biology, protein homeostasis and interdisciplinary discovery work. Academic laboratories, research platforms and biotechnology or pharmaceutical research are plausible directions, with additional role-specific requirements. Dundee offers doctoral careers guidance and employer activities but cautions that permanent academic posts immediately after a PhD are uncommon. PIPS and collaboration add experience, not a guaranteed company job or salary. Doctoral career guidance.

Evidence and Sources

Whether applications are still being accepted is unknown. The project listing gives a September 2027 start, while EastBio network material says 1 October; confirm the date with the programme. Paper evidence limits are stated under each study; complete methods, supplementary materials and raw data were not audited. Cost and funding estimates retain their source dates, and the precise current 26S-splitNanoLuc implementation still needs an independent validation reference.

Project, People and Original Research

• Current exact Dundee proteasome assembly PhD
• Rousseau current Dundee PI Senior Lecturer
• Rousseau MRC PPU laboratory and contact
• Sapkota MRC PPU signalling group and public contact
• Rousseau 2023 online 2024 issue original on assembly-chaperone translation
• Rousseau 2022 original on actin and proteasome stress homeostasis
• Rousseau 2024 original on distinct TORC1 signalling branches
• UKRI foundational 26S NanoLuc project announcement
• Dundee Drug Discovery Unit capabilities and role

Programme, Eligibility and Funding

• Dundee EastBio 2027 host application and training award
• EastBio current recruitment FAQ
• EastBio current how to apply 2027
• EastBio current structured doctoral training
• Dundee Life Sciences research degree programme
• Dundee research degrees quality code
• Dundee Life Sciences REF 2021 subject assessment
• Dundee China postgraduate research qualification guidance
• UKRI current studentship rates and grant use
• EASTBIO current selection cycle

Cost, Immigration and Careers

• Dundee living cost and private housing guide
• UK Student visa route
• UK immigration health surcharge
• ATAS nationality and covered subject rules
• Dundee doctoral career service and realistic academic pathway