Pharmacy PhD Projects, Programmes & Scholarships

Supervisors: Dr S McLean, Dr R Williamson

Research Group: Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

Dementia describes a group of age-associated conditions of which cognitive decline is a major feature. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia and is characterised by the onset of a gradual cognitive decline. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

ERK5 MAPK signalling in Alzheimer’s disease

Supervisors: Dr J Muller, Dr S Kantamneni

Research Group: Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

Neurodegenerative diseases have devastating effects on individuals’ lives and our society, with no effective treatments available. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Endosomal Sorting Complex Required for Transport (ESCRT): Investigation of the role in acquired drug resistance in colon cancer

Supervisors: Dr S Shnyder, Dr S Kantamneni

Research Group: Institute of Cancer Therapeutics

Despite treatment advances, one of the most common cancers, colorectal cancer (CRC), still has a 45% mortality rate, and one of the major problems is the build-up of resistance to cancer drugs during treatment (‘acquired resistance’) such that over time the drugs stop working. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Development of Naked Mole Rat Colonic Crypt Models to Use in the Search for Bowel Disease Preventatives

Supervisors: Dr S Shnyder, Prof S El-Khamisy

Research Group: Institute of Cancer Therapeutics

Diseases affecting the bowel such as colorectal cancer (CRC) and the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease are major global healthcare challenges in the 21st century. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Development of chemical tools and bioactive compounds to explore the importance of enzyme activity in cancer diseases

Supervisors: Prof K Pors, Dr V Vangala

Diversity-oriented synthesis (DOS) is a modern chemical methodology, which aims to synthesise small molecules that cover new chemical space with the possibility of finding unexplored biological targets or pathways that may be important for disease progression. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Development of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for oncology indications

Supervisors: Prof K Pors, Dr Muhammad Wahajuddin, Prof R Falconer

Research Group: Institute of Cancer Therapeutics

A major challenge in cancer therapy is to develop therapeutic agents that selectively target tumour cells but are not harmful to normal tissue. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Development of a personalized therapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Research Group: Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a devastating cardiovascular disorder which, if left untreated, leads to heart failure and death. Read more

Supervisor: Dr T Nasim

Design, synthesis and evaluation of protease-activated anti-cancer prodrugs

Supervisors: Prof R Falconer, Prof P Loadman

Research Group: Institute of Cancer Therapeutics

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of endoproteases that are overexpressed in tumours and play crucial roles in many tumourigenic processes, not least tumour invasion and angiogenesis. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Therapeutic resolution of BMPR2-mediated signalling defects in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)

Supervisors: Dr T Nasim, Dr R Gopalan

Research Group: Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is an incurable and devastating disease and death occurs within 2.5 years of diagnosis. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Re-purposing established drugs for the resolution of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)

Supervisors: Dr T Nasim, Dr K Assi

Research Group: Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a devastating cardiovascular disorder which, if left untreated, leads to heart failure and death. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Breaking the resistance: alternative approaches to antibiotics discovery

Supervisor: Prof G Wagner

The World Health Organisation (WHO) identifies antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as one of the top 10 global threats to human health (http://www.who.int/). Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Breaking the resistance: alternative approaches to antibiotics discovery

Supervisor: Prof G Wagner

The World Health Organisation (WHO) identifies antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as one of the top 10 global threats to human health (http://www.who.int/). Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

The University of Manchester Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health

PBPK modelling of disease-drug interactions using transporter and enzyme biomarker data

Precision dosing strategies require accounting for between-patient variability in pharmacokinetics. Read more

Supervisors: Dr A Galetin, Dr Daniel Scotcher, Prof A Rostami

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Aberdeen University School of Natural and Computing Sciences

Genome mining of novel antimicrobial natural products

These projects are open to students worldwide, but have no funding attached. Therefore, the successful applicant will be expected to fund tuition fees at the relevant level (home or international) and any applicable additional research costs. Read more

Supervisor: Dr H Deng

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

University of York York Biomedical Research Institute

Ion channel signalling in cancer cells

Our cells constantly sense and transport ions present in their environment. From embryonic development to epilepsy to heart disease to cancer, our cells’ ability to respond to changes in the ionic microenvironment is essential for healthy ageing. Read more

Supervisor: Dr W Brackenbury

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

3D-printed drug-eluting auxetic meshes for preventing biofilm formation and capsular contracture associated with breast implants

Supervisors: Prof K Malcolm, Dr P Boyd

This is an exemplar PhD project co-supervised by Dr. Zafer Kazanci (School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering) and Prof. Karl Malcolm (School or Pharmacy). Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Infection-responsive coatings for the prevention of catheter-associated urinary tract infections

Supervisors: Dr M Wylie, Prof C McCoy

Medical care has transformed over the last century with significant improvements in the variety and extent to which various diseases can be treated and/or prevented. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Biomaterial coatings with lubricious, slippery coatings for improved urinary catheter performance

Supervisors: Dr M Wylie, Prof C McCoy

Intermittent urinary catheterisation is commonly used to address chronic urinary retention in patients suffering from conditions such as spinal cord injury, stroke, and multiple sclerosis. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Designing next-generation urinary catheter materials for clean intermittent self-catheterisation through control of the urinary microbiome

Supervisors: Dr M Wylie, Dr L Sherrard

Intermittent urinary catheterisation is commonly used to address chronic urinary retention in patients suffering from conditions such as spinal cord injury, stroke, and multiple sclerosis. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Development of carbohydrate-functionalised materials for detection and prevention of medical device-associated infections

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are a growing problem in the 21st century, causing longer and more serious infections, and resulting in poor outcomes for vulnerable patients. . Read more

Supervisor: Dr M Wylie

Microneedle delivery systems for minimally-invasive patient diagnosis/monitoring

Supervisor: Prof R Donnelly

In this project, a novel type of integrated system will be investigated that will by-pass the skin barrier. On its surface will be multiple microscopic needles that pierce the skin without causing any pain – the sensation is said to feel like a cat’s tongue or sharkskin. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Microneedle delivery systems for next-generation antibody therapeutics

Supervisor: Prof R Donnelly

Microneedle arrays are minimally-invasive devices that painlessly, and without drawing blood, penetrate the skin’s stratum corneum barrier. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Does one size fit all for antimicrobial delivery via nanoparticles

Supervisors: Dr J Burrows, Prof B Gilmore

Antimicrobial resistant bacteria are a growing problem and new ways are needed to target bacterial infections more efficiently. One way in which bacteria can avoid therapeutics is via intracellular infection, where they hide within our own cells. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Regulation of CaaX protein processing

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

USP17 is over-expressed in a range of primary tumours including NSCLC, breast, colorectal, cervical, ovarian and osteosarcoma and its depletion has been shown to block the growth of cells from all these cancer types, as well as the migration of a range of cancer cells (NSCLC, breast, ovarian, osteosarcoma). . Read more

Supervisor: Dr J Burrows

The role of carers in medicines management for people living with dementia

Supervisors: Dr H Barry, Prof C Hughes

It is estimated that there are close to 50 million people living with dementia worldwide, and this number is estimated to double every 20 years. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Structure-based design of allosteric modulators for G protein-coupled receptors using molecular modelling and pharmacology experiments

Supervisors: Dr I Tikhonova, Dr B Plouffe

Almost all physiological processes are regulated through the activation of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). It has become widely accepted that most GPCRs possess binding sites spatially distinct from their natural ligand binding site (orthosteric site), termed as allosteric sites. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

High throughput exploration of the design space for antifungal nanocarrier development

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Fungal and bacterial infections contribute to over 7 million deaths yearly, affecting over 300 million people globally (GAFFI). Read more

Supervisor: Dr J Tian

A systematic screening tool for nanocarrier design and efficient drug delivery against biological barriers.

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Encapsulation of APIs in a liposome can dramatically alter the distribution by controlling the release to normal tissue while facilitating the accumulation to the site of inflammation. Read more

Supervisor: Dr J Tian

Designing and evaluating novel nanotherapeutics to enhance the effectiveness of radiotherapy in the treatment of solid cancers.

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

One in two cancer patients will receive radiotherapy as part of their treatment. For patients with a localised cancer diagnosis effective radiotherapy represents the best chance of a curative outcome, however, is not without risk. Read more

Supervisor: Dr J Coulter

Synthetic Protein-Transporters for Enhanced Transduction Activity

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Intracellular protein delivery is key to probing important cellular processes and developing advanced biotherapeutics. However, protein trafficking into the cell, and more specifically to the cytosol remains a significant challenge. Read more

Supervisor: Dr S Carmali