4-year PhD in Theoretical Systems Biology and Bioinformatics at Imperial

The opportunity

This 4-year PhD programme, supported by The Wellcome Trust, will provide an exciting training opportunity to acquire multidisciplinary skills to develop and then apply modelling to biological and clinical problems at the molecular and cellular levels. The programme aims to facilitate discipline hopping into this area and we welcome undergraduates from biological and medical sciences, physical sciences, mathematics, statistics, engineering and computing. The course will enable you, whatever your first degree, to acquire the breadth of skills to undertake stimulating research using theoretical systems biology and bioinformatics to advance biological and clinical research. As a member of the programme you will join a large community at Imperial applying modelling to study biological and biomedical problems.

The training programme

You will begin your studies by being registered on our highly-successful, year-long MSc in Bioinformatics and Theoretical Systems Biology. A key feature is that you will be part of a cohort of students both in your year and in previous years. This course starts with training and you will acquire core biological, computational and mathematics skills and have lectures in bioinformatics and theoretical systems biology. This is followed by three different rotation projects which enable you to discover and experience different modelling methodologies and experimental laboratory environments. During the first year you will benefit from working with many other students studying for this MSc.

The subsequent three PhD years will involve research developing novel theoretical methodologies and applying them to solve biological and biomedical problems. You will have two supervisors throughout your PhD – one theoretical and one experimental – to provide multidisciplinary training. You will have an opportunity to spend time with the experimental group, so you understand the data-generating protocols. We will offer you a wide range of research topics for your PhD as Imperial College has many vibrant research groups working in theoretical systems biology and bioinformatics and their application to bioscience and biomedical problems.

Application Procedure

The next 4-year programme starts in October 2019. There are 5 fully funded places (stipend, fees and generous research support including travel) for home/EU students and there is one scholarship to provide the additional fees required for an exceptional overseas student. The stipend (UK tax free) for 2019 will start at no less than £22,278 in year one, rising to at least £26,839 in year four. Deadline for receipt of applications is 23:00 GMT on Tuesday 4 December 2018. Please carefully follow the instructions given in the web site.

For further details and application procedure click here.