Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) for diagnosis in ex-preterm children

The ‘GW4 BioMed MRC DTP’ is awarding up to 18 studentships with an October 2020 start date, aligned with the themes of Infection, Immunity and Repair; Neuroscience and Mental Health; and Population Health. The DTP also places a strong emphasis on cross-cutting skills priorities (quantitative skills, interdisciplinary skills and in vivo skills), and may advertise projects outside these themes. The DTP welcomes students from non-medical backgrounds and can fund additional training to assist discipline conversion. Most studentships will be 3.5 years full time or up to 7 years part-time, and can be longer where additional training is undertaken.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a major respiratory consequence of premature birth (Walsh et al., 2006). In addition to respiratory symptoms, it can also associated with growth retardation, pulmonary arterial hypertension, neurodevelopmental delay, hearing defects, and retinopathy of prematurity (Allen et al., 2003). Survivors of BPD have functional abnormalities persisting into adolescence and early adulthood, with concerns that BPD maybe a precursor of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (Baraldi and Filippone, 2007). Although many studies report the long-term functional outcome of subjects with BPD, very little is known about the mechanisms as to why consequences of BPD persist in child/adulthood (Baraldi and Filippone, 2007).
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) are ubiquitous organic chemicals with high vapour pressure at room temperature. In the human body, VOCs are produced by various metabolic processes, thus forming a source of metabolic “finger-printing.” Exhaled adult human breath, for example, can contain several thousand VOCs which are considered to be markers of metabolic processes in the body (Miekisch et al., 2004). Breath VOCs are used for the early detection of cancer and related precision medicine (van der Schee et al., 2018, Buszewski et al., 2007). More recently, this technology has been extended to test other human samples for detection of disease in preterm infants like feaces (Berkhout et al., 2018, de Meij et al., 2015) and tracheal aspirates (Rogosch et al., 2014). However, their utility in differentiating disease states or therapeutic response in ex-preterm children has not yet been tested.


ELIGIBILITY

The DTP welcomes students from both biomedical and non-biomedical backgrounds (especially in areas of computing, mathematics and the physical sciences) and can fund additional training, including Masters, to assist discipline conversion. Applicants for a studentship must have obtained, or be about to obtain, a First or Upper Second Class UK Honours degree, or the equivalent qualifications gained outside the UK in an appropriate degree subject. Applicants with a Lower Second Class degree will only be considered if they also have a Master’s degree or have significant relevant non-academic experience.

HOW TO APPLY

You will need to complete both an application to the GW4 BioMed MRC DTP for an ‘offer of funding’ and to Cardiff University for an ‘offer to study’

1) Applying for an ‘offer of funding’
Please complete the online application form https://cardiff.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/gw4-biomed-mrc-doctoral-training-partnership-student-appl by 5pm, 25 November 2019.
The Research Theme Panels will complete the shortlisting and inform applicants by 19 December 2019.

If you are shortlisted you will need to;

• contact your chosen supervisor(s) to discuss your application between 3 and 15 January 2020
• submit two references and a copy of your academic transcript(s) by 17 January 2020
• attend an interview in Cardiff on 21 or 22 January 2020

Further details will be included in the shortlisting letter.
More information on the application process may be found here: http://www.gw4biomed.ac.uk/doctoral-students/

2) Applying for an ‘offer to study’

Applicants should submit an application for postgraduate study via the Cardiff University Online Application Service. http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research/programmes/programme/medicine

Applicants should select Doctor of Philosophy Medicine, with a start date of October 2020.
In the research proposal section of your application, please specify the project title and supervisors of this project and copy the project description in the text box provided. In the funding section, please select "I will be applying for a scholarship / grant" and specify that you are applying for advertised funding from GW4 BioMed MRC DTP.
If are applying for more than one Cardiff University project please note this in the research proposal section.