Rapid methods of assessing cellular immunity to SARS-CoV-2: Public health decisions about booster vaccines rely on evidence of waning immunity. This can be provided either by counting how many people benefit from the vaccine, or by immunology, measuring aspects of the immune system. The former is complicated because population behaviour, and viruses themselves, change with time. The latter lacks a suitable marker – antibodies naturally wane but we retain specialised immune cells which can make more antibody on demand. Current methods to assess this cellular immunity are expensive and cumbersome, taking 2 days and requiring expensive specialist equipment. We have preliminary evidence to show that measuring cellular immunity in the blood in just 3 hours is possible and this PhD aims to produce new method(s) of assessing cellular immunity that are rapid, scalable and can be deployed in resource-poor situations. The data produced will also give us new insights into the mechanism of activation of memory cells upon re-challenge. This project in Biosciences and Medicine involves single cell analysis as well as more traditional immunological methods. The successful candidate will be based in an Immunology section with state-of-the-art laboratory facilities and a vibrant research environment with regular research meetings. We expect that the student will obtain data that can be published and presented at scientific conferences.
Papers from our group this year are: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.19.456951v1 https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.602539
A 3.5-year fully funded studentship open to applicants worldwide starting in October 2022. Funding includes stipend, full fees and a research grant.
More information on the School of Biosciences and Medicine.
Entry requirements
A First or Upper Second-Class Honours degree from the UK (or equivalent qualification from international Institutions) or Masters degree in a relevant subject area.
English language requirements: An IELTS Academic of 6.5 or above with 6 in each individual category (or equivalent qualification from other agencies).
How to apply
Applications should be submitted via the online application portal for Biosciences and Medicine PhDs.
This project is part of the Faculty-funded studentship scheme and you can express interest in one or two of the projects available via this scheme. When completing your application, in place of a research proposal, please provide a 1-page (maximum) document containing the reference numbers(s), project title(s) and supervisor name(s) of the project or two projects you have selected, together with an explanation of your motivations for wanting to study for a PhD and your reasons for selecting the project(s) you have chosen.
The reference number for this project is FHMS PL - BM - 01.
For those interested in the project described above, we strongly encourage informal enquiries to be sent to Professor Deborah Dunn-Walters ([Email Address Removed]).
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