Developing nanotreatments for diabetes at Imperial College London on FindAPhD.com

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Dr William R. Scott, Prof Molly Stevens No more applications being accepted Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

London United Kingdom Biochemistry Biomedical Engineering Cell Biology Data Analysis Genomics Molecular Biology Physiology

MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS), Imperial College London

About the Project

We are a clinical and experimental lab at the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences & Imperial College London. Our research investigates new mechanisms and treatments for human obesity and diabetes using high-throughput molecular screening in patients and targeted hypothesis testing in experimental systems.

The project will study how weight loss brings about ‘cure’ of type 2 diabetes, and whether this response can be mimicked with pharmacotherapies. It is a collaborative project with Professor Molly Stevens’ lab in the Department of Bioengineering. Together, we aim to (i) identify and characterise exosomes (extracellular vesicles secreted by cells that contain bioactive molecules) involved in the reversal of diabetes pathophysiology after human weight loss and (ii) use this information to develop new exosome-based nanotreatments for diabetes.

We are looking for someone with a genuine interest in interdisciplinary research to understand and ameliorate human metabolic diseases. Previous experience in cell culture and molecular biology is desirable but not essential, as are coding skills.

For more information, please visit our websites:

https://lms.mrc.ac.uk/research-group/genomics-of-obesity/

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5467-114X

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/m.stevens

https://www.stevensgroup.org/

To apply, please visit the link below;

https://lms.mrc.ac.uk/study-here/phd-studentships/lms-3-5yr-studentships/

Funding Notes

The funding for this studentship includes full (Home rate) tuition fees for 3.5 years as well as a generous stipend amounting to £21,000pa paid directly to the student for the same duration.
Please note that we are only able to accept applications from Home Fee rate students, which includes students with settled status or pre-settled status covering the duration of the whole studentship (until June 2026).

References

L. McAllan et al. Integrative genomic analyses in adipocytes implicate DNA methylation in human obesity and diabetes. MedRvix. Nat Comms in revision, 2021 Dec. *Senior corresponding author.
S Wahl*, … WR Scott* et al. Epigenome-wide association study of body mass index, and the adverse outcomes of adiposity. Nature. 2017 Jan 5;541(7635):81-86. *Joint lead authors.
WR Scott et al. Investigation of Genetic Variation Underlying Central Obesity amongst South Asians. PLoS One. 2016 May 19;11(5):e0155478.
JC Chambers et al. Epigenome-wide association of DNA methylation markers in peripheral blood from Indian Asians and Europeans with incident type 2 diabetes: a nested case-control study. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2015 Jul 3(7):526-534.
Lehne et al. A coherent approach for analysis of the Illumina HumanMethylation450 BeadChip improves data quality and performance in epigenome-wide association studies. Genome Biol. 2015 Feb 15;16:37.
WR Scott et al. Differential pre-mRNA splicing regulates Nnat isoforms in the hypothalamus after gastric bypass surgery in mice. PLoS One. 2013;8(3):e59407.
WR Scott et al. Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy: understanding weight loss and improvements in type 2 diabetes after bariatric surgery. Am J Physiol. 2011 Jul;301(1):R15-27.