pathogen 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.

The severity of plant disease is determined by a battle between pathogen virulence and host plant immunity – understanding this relationship is key to developing sustainable methods of pathogen control.

Nucleoside decoys, unravelling a novel plant pathogen virulence strategy

Prof M Grant, Dr V Ntoukakis, Assoc Prof L Song

Application Deadline: 7 June 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

Competition 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 is in competition for funding with other projects. Usually the project which receives the best applicant will be successful. Unsuccessful projects may still go ahead as self-funded opportunities.

Ensuring food security is critically important to our next generation and this encompasses a increase in productivity of 50% by 2050! We currently we lose 25-40% of global crop production to plant pathogens, thus significant progress could be made through improved plant disease resistance.

Metals and host-pathogen interactions: the role of metal handling systems in the human gastrointestinal pathogen Campylobacter jejuni

The University of Manchester
Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health

Dr J Cavet, Dr D Linton

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.

Campylobacter jejuni is a globally important food-borne pathogen causing an estimated 400-500 million cases of acute human gastroenteritis each year.

Targeting the Arms Factory: The emerging role of the endoplasmic reticulum in plant immunity

Prof L Frigerio, Dr E Breeze, Prof M Grant

Application Deadline: 7 June 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

Competition 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 is in competition for funding with other projects. Usually the project which receives the best applicant will be successful. Unsuccessful projects may still go ahead as self-funded opportunities.

As the protein factory of the cell, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) underpins the production, folding and quality control of proteins, as well as lipid biosynthesis.

Developing phage therapy to control plant pathogenic bacteria in the rhizosphere microbiome

University of York
Department of Biology

Dr V Friman

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.

Plant pathogenic bacteria cause considerable economic losses to food production systems. The main reason for this is that hardly any effective control methods exist to mitigate this damage.

Listeria monocytogenes in food supply chains – the persistent pathogen (Ref: SF20/APP/FOX)

Northumbria University
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Dr E Fox

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 foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes is an important contaminant of food products and associated supply chains, and has caused significant outbreaks of disease through consumption of contaminated food products.

Ecosystem resilience to pathogens: understanding the interplay between pathogen host shifts and coevolutionary dynamics (Funded by the QUEX Institute)

University of Queensland
The Graduate School

Dr J Engelstaedter

Application Deadline: 15 June 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

Competition 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 is in competition for funding with other projects. Usually the project which receives the best applicant will be successful. Unsuccessful projects may still go ahead as self-funded opportunities. Applications for the project are welcome from all suitably qualified candidates, but potential funding may be restricted to a limited set of nationalities. You should check the project and department details for more information.

Pathogens are an inevitable part of every ecosystem. In humans as well as in livestock and natural systems, the majority of pathogens have only arrived in their host species relatively recently, by switching from a different host species.

Targeting pathogen subversion of cellular ageing to combat antimicrobial-resistant typhoid fever

University of Sheffield
Department of Biomedical Science

Dr D Humphreys, Dr T Darton

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

Competition 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 is in competition for funding with other projects. Usually the project which receives the best applicant will be successful. Unsuccessful projects may still go ahead as self-funded opportunities. Applications for the project are welcome from all suitably qualified candidates, but potential funding may be restricted to a limited set of nationalities. You should check the project and department details for more information.

Antimicrobial-resistant typhoid fever is fuelled by chronic Salmonella carriage. The world faces epidemics of untreatable typhoid fever caused by antimicrobial-resistant strains of Salmonella Typhi (~27 million cases/year).

What happens within? Organellular interactions during plant disease and defence

Prof M Grant, Prof L Frigerio

Application Deadline: 7 June 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

Competition 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 is in competition for funding with other projects. Usually the project which receives the best applicant will be successful. Unsuccessful projects may still go ahead as self-funded opportunities.

Crop losses due to biotic stress contribute disproportionately to yield losses, generally accounting for ~25% of the crop. Thus, developing novel approaches to restricting pathogen infections of crops and consequently yields must be a key futurey objective.

Using genotype-to-phenotype analyses to identify the genetic determinants of gastroenteritis caused by the food-borne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni

University of Leicester
Department of Genetics and Genome Biology

Dr C D Bayliss, Prof J Ketley

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.

Campylobacter jejuni is the major causative agent of foodborne gastroenteritis across Europe. Contaminated chicken meat is the main source of infections and hence control of this pathogen is critical to food security in the poultry industry.

Uncovering new signalling nodes in the interaction between wheat and the fungal pathogen Mycosphaerella graminicola (Septoria tritici)

Durham University
Department of Biosciences

Prof A Sadanandom, Prof A Gatehouse

Application Deadline: 27 May 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

Competition 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 is in competition for funding with other projects. Usually the project which receives the best applicant will be successful. Unsuccessful projects may still go ahead as self-funded opportunities.

Mycosphaerella graminicola is an economically important fungal pathogen of wheat leaves and the causal agent of Septoria tritici blotch disease (STB).

Adaptation of the major human pathogen Klebsiella pneumoniae to multispecies environments

Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
Jena School for Microbial Communication

Dr K Fröhlich

Application Deadline: 25 June 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 Cluster of Excellence “Balance of the Microverse” of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany, combines expertise in life, material, optical and computational sciences to elevate microbiome studies from descriptive to hypothesis-driven and functional analyses.

Phage therapy as a treatment of Equine Strangles, and causative bacterial pathogen Streptococcus equi (ref: SF20/APP/SMITH4)

Northumbria University
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Dr D Smith

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.

Streptococcus equi is an important equine bacterial pathogen causing the disease ‘strangles’, which affects both Thoroughbred and non-Thoroughbred horses around the world.

Transport of essential nutrients across the outer membrane of a bacterial pathogen

University of Sheffield
Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease

Dr M Thomas

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.

Gram-negative bacteria possess a second membrane, the outer membrane (OM), that serves as an additional line of defence against noxious agents, including antibiotics.

Investigation of complement-bacteria-phage interactions in a Neisseria gonorrhoeae biofilm model

Dr A Sagona, Prof E M H Wellington

Application Deadline: 7 June 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

Competition 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 is in competition for funding with other projects. Usually the project which receives the best applicant will be successful. Unsuccessful projects may still go ahead as self-funded opportunities.

The problem of antimicrobial resistance is serious worldwide and the scientific community is faced with new challenges every day, which require new approaches.