Applications are invited for a fully funded 3.5-year PhD studentship to join Haemato-oncology team at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School. This studentship is funded by a Paul Stanforth PhD scholarship.
Upregulation of NFκB signalling is commonly seen in Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) and is known to upregulate anti-apoptotic proteins that promote cancer cell survival and lead to resistance to treatment. Different DLBCL patients likely have different NFκB dimers and different levels of these anti-apoptotic proteins, which may lead to their distinct responses to therapies.
The Mitchell lab have developed computational simulations of these signalling networks that enable us to predict how cells might respond to treatment. Using a combination of experiments characterising the links between NFκB and apoptosis, along with computational modelling, the student will find new interdisciplinary approaches to get the right drugs into the right patients.
This project combines molecular/cellular biology with computational biology.
The principal aim of this project is to establish if specific druggable targets can be identified to maximise clinical responses in specific subsets of DLBCL cells.
The successful candidate will join an interdisciplinary research team lead by Dr Simon Mitchell (https://mitchell.science) be integrated into the rapidly expanding haemato-oncology team at BSMS led by Professors Chris and Andrea Pepper (https://www.pepper.science). The project offers a wide range of training opportunities and the student will be able to acquire essential skills from a variety of areas including systems biology, cell signalling, drug targeting and translational haemato-oncology. This should provide the successful candidate with critical skills and substantial experience to make them a highly competitive candidate for a postdoctoral research position, especially in the field of systems oncology.