PhD studentship in Delineating Molecular Mechanisms of Human Neuronal Physiology and Neurodegeneration

Applications are invited for a fully-funded PhD research studentship in the School of Health, Sport and Bioscience, University of East London. Our vision is to deliver excellent research that has a direct impact on the health and wellbeing of individuals in the local, national and international context. The successful applicant will work in a Doctoral Research Training Programme in Biology of Ageing and Neurodegeneration with an internationally recognised team and will become a member of an interdisciplinary UK academic health sciences network (UCLPartners Centre for Neurorehabilitation) and international networks.

Ageing is an almost universal phenomenon in living organisms. A challenge in ageing research is the characterisation of the associated transcriptional networks controlling cellular metabolism and play pivotal roles in age-related diseases. The highly conserved, nutrient-responsive Target of Rapamycin (TOR) signalling pathway promotes growth and ageing and is implicated in age-related diseases such as cancer and neurodegeneration. Utilising molecular genetics and genomic approaches as well as computational analyses we will explore the role of TOR-dependent transcriptional networks in the initiation and acceleration of neurodegenerative disease human neuronal tissue culture systems. The successful student will collaborate with groups in UEL, UCL and The Francis Crick Institute.
The Award
The studentship is open only for Home/EU applicants and it is for a period of three years, subject to satisfactory yearly progress and provides an annual stipend of £16900 pa; payment of tuition fees, a training bursary and core research costs.
Requirements
Applicants should ideally have a good honours science degree (1st or 2.1 class or international equivalent) and an MSc or MRes in Molecular Biology, Biochemistry or Genetics. Experience in working with mammalian tissue culture systems and associated molecular biology techniques is desirable. Applicants must also have excellent communication skills and a very high level of written and spoken English. Where English is not the applicant’s first language, a minimum IELTS Academic English score of 7.0 overall with a minimum of 6.5 in all components is required.

The holder of the studentship will be expected to:
Complete their doctoral studies and submit their dissertation within 3 years.
Prepare papers for submission to peer-reviewed journals.
Participate in and contribute to research activities of the School and activities relevant to their sponsors.
Application Procedure
Informal enquiries about the studentship should be addressed to the specific Director of Studies stated above.

Applicants should apply online via the following link: www.uel.ac.uk/postgraduate/courses/phd-mphil-hsb

When completing your online application please state the project title and reference code in your personal statement. Applications will only be accepted via the online application form. Please also use the reference code in all correspondence. The closing date for completed applications is 16th June 2019. Interviews will be held in first week of July (i.e. wb 1st July 2019). Start date will be September 2019.

Reference code: HSB2019_PhD_BR