University of Central Lancashire Funded Doctoral Training Centre for Industry Collaboration: Inaugural PhD Studentships. The successful applicant will receive an annual stipend payment of £16062 and tuition fees will be covered.
2022 sees the establishment of an internally funded Doctoral Training Centre at the University of Central Lancashire, which will support fully funded PhD studentships on an annual basis and with the first cohort joining us in September 2022.
The focus of the studentships is industry collaboration, with external organisations providing added value to the research projects supporting the professional development of each doctoral candidate. In addition, each studentship aligns with an area of existing research strength and strategic focus at UCLan and the achievement of regional and national R&D investment agendas for growth.
The Doctoral Training Centre will provide:
- A bespoke cohort programme of training & development focused on research skills and professional development that aligns with impact agendas
- An events programme to include external speakers, networking opportunities and careers support
- Opportunities to undertake industrial placements
- A dedicated support team – academic and administrative
- Tuition fees paid, annual stipend and a fund to support research activities
Both Home and international Applicants may apply however international students will be required to cover the difference in tuition fee level between home and overseas rates.
Project Description:
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the most common and aggressive brain tumours with a prognosis of 14 months after diagnosis. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy immunotherapy are used for GBM treatment. However, GBM is still an incurable disease, and the current approved therapies have negligible impact on the mortality rate, and therefore new approaches are required for its successful treatment. In this regard, RNA interference (RNAi) is emerging as a novel strategy for the treatment of most cancers, including GBM. The field of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) which induce post-transcriptional gene silencing in a sequence specific manner is rapidly emerging. The pathways that significantly promote cancer proliferation and invasion, and induce resistance of cancer cells to chemotherapy could all be likely targeted by siRNA and thereby provide a milestone progress in cancer therapy. Despite the potential of RNAi-based therapy, clinical limitations include short circulatory stability, rapid clearance from the body, low transfection efficiency and inadequate delivery to the brain tumour tissue. An additional limitation for the development of RNAi as a real modality for GBM treatment is the restriction of the blood brain barrier (BBB). Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have emerged as premier technology for nucleic acid delivery and their success is best exemplified by recent Covid-19mRNA vaccines and Onpattro lipid nanoparticle-based siRNA drug for treatment of polyneuropathies. Research in our lab have shown successful tailoring of lipid nanocarriers with enhanced permeation through in-vitro BBB/BBTB (blood brain tumour) models.
This Ph.D. project aims to investigate development, optimisation, and evaluation of LNPs that can carry siRNA, cross the BBB and effectively silence the target genes in GBM cells. The project is multi-disciplinary at the interface of nanomedicine, material science and cancer biology. The research will probe systematic development and characterisation of tailored LNPs with defined product and process parameters and will examine their performance in relevant in vitro cell culture models.
Further information
For informal enquiries about this position, please contact Director of Studies of the project, Prof. Kamalinder K Singh ([Email Address Removed]), Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology and Drug delivery, School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences
For full details go to: https://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/research-degrees/studentships
Please apply using the following link, quoting the studentship reference number DTC046
https://my.uclan.ac.uk/BANP/bwskalog.P_DispLoginNon
For any queries, please email [Email Address Removed].
Closing Date: 24th June 2022
Proposed Interview Date: TBC
CURRENT UCLAN RESEARCH STUDENTS WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE TO APPLY FOR THIS RESEARCH STUDENTSHIP