Northumbria University, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences 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.

Over the past decade, advances in genetic technologies have made it possible to determine much more information from a sample of DNA.

Characterising temperate bacteriophages in complex microbial communities and their role in antimicrobial resistance (Ref:SF18/APP/Smith)

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.

Temperate bacteriophages have the ability to integrate into the chromosome of their target bacterium that leads to a change in the physiology of their bacterial host.

Characterising the faecal virome in Crohn’s disease patients with known NOD2 variants compared to matched controls without gastrointestinal disease (ref: SF18/APP/Bridge)

Northumbria University
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Dr SH Bridge

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 human virome includes viruses that infect host cells and viruses that infect bacteria, and impacts on health and disease independently of classical viral disease.

Investigation into the biological effects of exercise training on muscle wasting in patients with lung disease (ref: SF18/APP/SIMOES)

Northumbria University
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Dr D Simoes

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.

Accentuated skeletal muscle loss in patients with non-communicable diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a strong independent predictor of hospitalisation and mortality.

Microbial community composition and biosynthetic potential of actinomycetes in the soil samples from extreme environments (ref: SF18/APP/SANGAL)

Northumbria University
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Dr V Sangal

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.

A number of bacterial species are able to survive in the extreme environmental conditions, e.g., hyper-arid soil of the Atacama desert (Busarakam et al., 2016; Castro et al., 2018).

Molecular characterisation of novel pathways for cell envelope protein localisation in mycolic acid-producing actinomycetes (ref: SF18/APP/Sutcliffe)

Northumbria University
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Prof I Sutcliffe

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.

Mycolic acid-producing actinomycetes are of vital economic and medical importance. They include pathogenic species including Corynebacterium diphtheriae, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Rhodococcus equi as well as industrially important organisms.

Molecular mechanisms of neuronal ageing in bladder and bowel neurons (ref: SF18/APP/Ranson)

Northumbria University
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Dr R Ranson

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.

Ageing results in a progressive loss of physiological function resulting in a reduced quality of life in the elderly. One of the more prevalent conditions associated with ageing is incontinence-both faecal and urinary.

Multivariate analysis of human craniofacial geometry (ref: SF18/APP/EVISON)

Northumbria University
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Prof M Evison

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.

Understanding of variation in the geometry of the face and skull is valuable in clinical applications, such those involving surgical interventions undertaken in response to trauma or disease.

New Privilege nutrients of Human Gut Microbiota from Western Diet (ref: SF18/APP/Munoz)

Northumbria University
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Dr J Munoz

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 human large bowel contains ~1013 bacteria, referred to as the human gut microbiota or HGM. There is considerable interest in deploying prebiotic and probiotic strategies to maximise the impact of the HGM on human health.

Novel drug target validation for treating Diabetes Mellitus (ref: SF18/APP/Soundararajan)

Northumbria University
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Dr M Soundararajan

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 important cellular entities responsible for fighting against infections in our body are the T cells. T cells are however also shown to play a central role in the development of autoimmune diseases (AIDs) as “T cell activation hijacking” is the major autoimmune reaction causing mechanism observed in several AIDs.