Necrosis, a form of premature cell death, is frequently caused by excessive insults such as trauma, infection and toxins. It has been implicated in many human diseases including cancer, neurodegenerative disorders and inflammatory diseases. Although it has long been considered to be passive and uncontrolled, recent studies have revealed that necrosis can be genetically regulated therefore potentially manageable. However, our knowledge about regulation of necrosis is still very limited. It is partly due to lack of in vivo assays for systematic analyses. To address this, we have developed a model of regulated necrosis using Drosophila, an organism with advantages of genetic manipulation, and revealed the relevance of necrosis to tumour suppression. This PhD project is to employ this assay to further identify and characterise novel regulators of necrosis in an intact organism, with the aim to explore how necrosis can be managed in human diseases.
State-of-the-art technologies in Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, Advanced Microscopy Imaging and Drosophila Genetics are employed in this research.
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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) PhD studentships each year. Fully funded research council studentships are available for both UK nationals and overseas students. The deadline for applications for research council studentships is typically in early 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 typically in early January each year.