In multi-cellular organisms, coordinated cell death (e.g. apoptosis) and cell replacement is critical for tissue recovery in response to stress or damage. Although there is not much known about this process at the cellular and molecular level, recent studies including ours have discovered that apoptotic cells can actively induce compensatory proliferation of surrounding cells through a non-apoptotic function of caspases, a family of cysteine-proteases that normally execute apoptosis. Our research is to dissect the molecular anatomy of compensatory cell proliferation following activation of apoptosis. By taking genetic advantages of Drosophila, multiple assays have been developed to systematically identify regulators of compensatory cell proliferation. Because apoptosis-induced compensatory proliferation has been observed in tissue regeneration and tumorigenesis in multiple organisms including mammals, identification of its underlying regulatory mechanisms in Drosophila will significantly impact our understanding of its physiological role in tissue repair as well as its pathological role in multiple human diseases including cancer.
State-of-the-art technologies in Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, and Drosophila Genetics are employed in our research.
Enthusiastic applicants are welcome. Funding possibilities are available.
___
To find out more about studying for a PhD at the University of Birmingham, including full details of the research undertaken in each school, the funding opportunities for each subject, and guidance on making your application, you can now order your copy of the new Doctoral Research Prospectus, at: www.birmingham.ac.uk/students/drp.aspx
___
Please find additional funding text below. For further funding details, please see the ‘Funding’ section.
The School of Biosciences offers a number of UK Research Council (e.g. BBSRC, NERC) PhD studentships each year. Fully funded research council studentships are normally only available to UK nationals (or EU nationals resident in the UK) but part-funded studentships may be available to EU applicants resident outside of the UK. The deadline for applications for research council studentships is in January each year.
Each year we also have a number of fully funded Darwin Trust Scholarships. These are provided by the Darwin Trust of Edinburgh and are for non-UK students wishing to undertake a PhD in the general area of Molecular Microbiology. The deadline for this scheme is also in January each year.
The University of Birmingham also has a 'Doctoral Researcher Elite Scholarship Scheme' which aims to recruit the very best overseas PhD students to Birmingham - more details on this scheme can be found at http://www.graduateschool.bham.ac.uk/rsa/researchcouncils/drelite.shtml
Funding Notes:
Research Council Studentships are available for UK applicants. EU applicants resident in the UK may also be eligible. Non-UK students interested in molecular microbiology may apply for a Darwin Trust Scholarship. The deadline for applications for Research Council and Darwin Trust studentships is 31st January 2013.
We have a thriving community of International PhD students and encourage applications at any time from students of any nationality either able to fund their own studies or who wish to apply for their own funding (e.g. Commonwealth Scholarship Council, Islamic Development Bank).
For further information on funding see http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/biosciences/courses/postgraduate/phd.aspx
References:
1) Lee T.V.*, Fan Y.*, Wang S., Srivastava M., Broemer M., Meier P. and Bergmann A. (2011). Drosophila IAP1-mediated ubiquitylation controls processing, but not protein stability, of the initiator caspase DRONC. PLoS Genetics. 7 (9): e1002261.
2) Fan Y., Lee T., Xu D., Chen Z., Lamblin A.F., Steller H. and Bergmann A. (2010). Dual roles of Drosophila p53 in cell death and cell differentiation. Cell Death Differ. Fan Y. and Bergmann A. (2010). The cleaved-Caspase-3 antibody is a marker of Caspase-9-like DRONC activity in Drosophila. Cell Death Differ. 17 (3), 534-539.
4) Fan Y. and Bergmann A. (2008). Apoptosis-induced compensatory proliferation. The Cell is dead. Long live the Cell! Trends Cell Biol. 18 (10), 467-473.
5) Fan Y. and Bergmann A. (2008). Distinct mechanisms of apoptosis-induced compensatory proliferation in proliferating and differentiating tissues in the Drosophila eye. Dev. Cell 14 (3), 339-410. (evaluated by Faculty of 1000 Biology as “Must Read”)