Research Theme: Infection, Immunity, Antimicrobial Resistance & Repair
How are antifungal usage and environment change on our farms driving cross-resistance in clinical pathogens?
Lead Supervisor
Dr Neil Brown
Department
Life Sciences
Project Summary
Fungal pathogens cause deadly human infections, destroy our crops, and contaminate our food with toxins. Fungal pathogens of people are also present on our farms. Worryingly, we rely on a few antifungals to cure human infection and to secure our safe food supply. Here, we aim to understand how our changing environments and use of antifungals on farms may drive human pathogens to evolve cross-resistance to clinical treatments that result in poor patient outcomes.
Project Reference
MRC23IIARBa Brown
Project Enquiries
Integrating biology and population health science to investigate obesity and deficient wound healing
Lead Supervisor
Dr David Gurevich
Department
Life Sciences
Project Summary
Obesity is a systemic disease that disrupts many cell and tissue functions, with impaired healing a key complication. This project will investigate the impact of obesity on deficient wound healing by integrating approaches from the biological and population health sciences. Key tools include epidemiological multi-omics data, zebrafish transgenesis and imaging, and human tissue culture assays, to reveal potential therapeutic targets for improving patient outcomes.
Project Reference
MRC23IIARBa Gurevich
Project Enquiries
Evolution of antimicrobial resistance in bacterial microbiomes
Lead Supervisor
Dr Brian Jones
Department
Life Sciences
Project Summary
Biocides are broad spectrum antimicrobial agents used extensively in healthcare as antiseptics and disinfectants. Working with the United Kingdom Health Security Agency, you will employ molecular, genomic, bioinformatic, and directed evolution techniques, in conjunction with models of polymicrobial infection, to answer fundamental questions about the role of biocides in evolution of antimicrobial resistance.
Project Reference
MRC23IIARBa JonesB
Project Enquiries
Escaping host immunity: Characterising immune evasion mechanisms employed by the bacterial pathogen Staphylococcus aureus
Lead Supervisor
Dr Maisem Laabei
Department
Life Sciences
Project Summary
The complement system plays a major role in defence against infection. How major human pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus resist this element of host immunity is currently unclear. By employing gold-standard phenotypic, transcriptomic and functional genomic techniques, this project will reveal important virulence factors and virulence gene regulatory networks that promote resistance to complement, offering new targets for future therapeutic intervention.
Project Reference
MRC23IIARBa Laabei
Project Enquiries
Targeting adipose-derived adipsin for the treatment of arthritis
Lead Supervisor
Professor Dylan Thompson
Department
Health
Project Summary
Adipose tissue is much more than an energy store. Recent evidence from rodent models indicates that a major product of adipose tissue (adipsin) plays a direct role in the pathogenesis of immune mediated inflammatory arthritis. This interdisciplinary project will determine the role of adipsin in humans, including whether targeting adipsin has the potential to prevent and/or treat inflammatory arthritis and osteoarthritis.
Project Reference
MRC23IIARBa Thompson
Project Enquiries
Research Theme: Neuroscience & Mental Health
All too (un)predictable? The effect of environmental predictability and sensory sensitivities on sleep problems in autism
Lead Supervisor
Dr Rachael Bedford
Department
Psychology
Project Summary
Sensory hyper-sensitivity and sleep problems are common in autistic children. This project aims to investigate the role of environmental predictability and sensory sensitivities in sleep problems in both neurotypical and autistic pre-schoolers, via an online, large-scale community sample and a pilot intervention study in autistic pre-schoolers. The PhD includes advanced methods training in eye-tracking and structural equation modelling.
Project Reference
MRC23NMHBa Bedford
Project Enquiries
Effects of cannabis on the adolescent brain and epigenetic aging
Lead Supervisor
Dr Tom Freeman
Department
Psychology
Project Summary
Adolescence is a critical neurodevelopmental period which may confer greater vulnerability to the effects of cannabis. To test this hypothesis, you will apply a range of advanced methods (structural MRI, diffusion MRI, brain aging, epigenetic aging) to a recently completed longitudinal study. You will work with young people to create a video resource informed by your results to create evidence-based drugs education and encourage youth engagement with science.
Project Reference
MRC23NMHBa Freeman
Project Enquiries
Advanced detection of synthetic cannabinoids used in prisons in the South West (GW4) region
Lead Supervisor
Professor Stephen Husbands
Department
Life Sciences
Project Summary
Drug use can have serious neuronal effects leading to major mental health issues. We will apply advanced detection methods to synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (Spice) in an interdisciplinary project assaying samples related to drug use in the SW England. We will then research mental health and cognitive consequences of Spice use in prisons in the South West, using outcomes data to track how this predicts social and psychological functioning following release.
Project Reference
MRC23NMHBa Husbands
Project Enquiries
Integrating MRI network analysis and genomics to refine risk prediction in Alzheimer’s disease
Lead Supervisor
Dr Thomas Lancaster
Department
Psychology
Project Summary
Alzheimer’s disease has a significant heritable component, yet we know little about this genetic risk affects the living human brain. The project will incorporate bioinformatic approaches using neuroimaging, genomic and clinical health record data to understand why we see increased brain cell death in individuals with heightened genetic for Alzheimer’s disease.
Project Reference
MRC23NMHBa Lancaster
Project Enquiries
Being in a child's shoes: Assessing changes in parents’ empathy and perspective-taking by using a combination of virtual reality and EEG methods
Lead Supervisor
Dr Karin Petrini
Department
Psychology
Project Summary
Perspective-taking (cognitive awareness of another’s state) and empathy (emotional/affective response) are important for sensitive and constructive parenting. However, these constructs are difficult to induce and measure and their underlying brain mechanisms during parenting remain unclear. This project will use a combination of virtual reality, electroencephalogram (EEG) and self-report measures to examine changes in parents’ empathy to inform future interventions.
Project Reference
MRC23NMHBa Petrini
Project Enquiries
Research Theme: Public Health Sciences
The natural environment and depression: triangulating the role of stress biomarkers across geographically diverse regions
Lead Supervisor
Dr Esther Walton
Department
Psychology
Project Summary
Urbanicity is an important risk factor of mental illness. Furthermore, this link may be mediated by biological markers of stress including inflammation and epigenetic processes. However, the relationship between physical features of the living environment, biomarkers of stress and mental health in more geographically diverse regions (e.g. Australia, South America, Europe) remains unknown – a key limitation, which this project will address.
Project Reference
MRC23PHSBa Walton