cell biology PhD Projects, Programs & Scholarships

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

Plasma cells are the antibody secreting cells of the immune system thus are vital for fighting infection. However, dysregulation of plasma cell function is linked to a broad range of disease from Lupus to multiple myeloma.

Tackling neurovascular dysfunction in dementia: a cell biology and biomaterials approach

The University of Manchester
Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health

Prof N Hooper, Dr M Domingos, Dr T Wang

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

Neurovascular dysfunction is a central process in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. In the brain, vascular and neuronal structures are tightly integrated forming the multicellular neurovascular unit comprising endothelial cells, pericytes, astrocytes, microglia and neurons.

Rhomboid-like proteins and the cell biology of signalling

University of Oxford
Sir William Dunn School of Pathology

Prof M Freeman

Application Deadline: 10 January 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project has funding attached, subject to eligibility criteria. Applications for the project are welcome from all suitably qualified candidates, but its funding may be restricted to a limited set of nationalities. You should check the project and department details for more information.

The main questions we study are what cellular mechanisms regulate signalling between animal cells, and how does that signalling control biological functions like physiology, development and disease? Our current focus recently is the rhomboid-like superfamily of proteins.

Normal and malignant blood stem cell biology

University of York
Department of Biology

Dr D G Kent, Dr I Hitchcock

Application Deadline: 30 June 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

One of the simplest and most provocative concepts in all of stem cell biology is how a single stem cell can give rise to any of the highly specialised cell types of a given tissue while also having the capacity to make a new equally potent stem cell.

The nanoscale organisation of immune cell surfaces in health and disease

The University of Manchester
Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health

Prof D Davis

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

Super-resolution microscopes, celebrated in the 2014 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, are one of the tools that allow us to study immune cells in unprecedented detail.

Super resolution imaging of DNA damage and repair - Interdisciplinary Single Molecule Biology PhD

La Trobe Institute For Molecular Science
Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences

Dr D Whelan

Application Deadline: 3 November 2019

Funding Type

PhD Type

Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project has funding attached, subject to eligibility criteria. Applications for the project are welcome from all suitably qualified candidates, but its funding may be restricted to a limited set of nationalities. You should check the project and department details for more information.

Summary. A fully funded La Trobe University PhD scholarship is available in the Whelan Single-Molecule Biophysics group, to be undertaken at the Bendigo campus within the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science (LIMS).

Cell biology and evolution of cancer metastasis

University of Reading
School of Biological Sciences

Dr P R Dash

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

We are interested in the spread of cancer, a process called metastasis. Metastasis is responsible for the majority of cancer deaths and there are currently no effective treatments to stop this process.

Expanded potential stem cells for regenerative medicine, immunotherapy, and biotechnology

University of Hong Kong
School of Biomedical Sciences

Prof P Lui

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project has funding attached, subject to eligibility criteria. Applications for the project are welcome from all suitably qualified candidates, but its funding may be restricted to a limited set of nationalities. You should check the project and department details for more information.

Embryonic stem cells (ES cells) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) are pluripotent and thus hold great promise in regenerative medicine, studying disease mechanisms and drug discovery.

Understanding the glycobiology of metastatic breast cancer by chemical biology

The Francis Crick Institute
PhD Programme

Dr I Malanchi, Dr B Schumann

Application Deadline: 12 November 2019

Funding Type

PhD Type

Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project has funding attached for UK and EU students, though the amount may depend on your nationality. Non-EU students may still be able to apply for the project provided they can find separate funding. You should check the project and department details for more information.

A joint Crick-Imperial College London funded PhD position for the 2020 programme between the labs of Ilaria Malanchi and Ben Schumann.

Understanding how the NuRD complex regulates 3D genome organization using a combination of single-molecule super-resolution imaging and single cell biology

University of Cambridge
Department of Biochemistry

Prof E D Laue

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

The spatial organisation of the genome is known to play an important role in regulating RNA transcription to effect cell-type-specific gene expression programs, and to control the differentiation of embryonic stem (ES) cells.