Development of image-informatics approaches to advance drug discovery and development in neurodegenerative disorders.

Applications are invited for a MRC funded interdisciplinary PhD training position at the University of Edinburgh, to be hosted jointly between the MRC Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicines and the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences.

As part of our ambition to innovate neurodegenerative disease drug discovery and development we are developing advanced imaging and image-informatics approaches to support a more evidence-led approach to the discovery of novel drugs and drug combinations. In contrast to conventional target-directed drug discovery (TDD) approaches which optimize drug candidates based on selectivity and potency against a single nominated protein target, emerging phenotypic drug discovery (PDD) technologies select and optimize candidate drugs based upon quantifiable phenotypic endpoints. This project aims to develop novel high content image-based screening assays using human induced pluripotent stem cell derived models to quantify glial cell phenotypes. Through development of bespoke multiparametric image–analysis algorithms and bioinformatics workflows we will generate unique multiparametric fingerprints describing compound mechanism-of-action. Working in collaboration with informatics colleagues, we will apply multivariate statistics and machine learning approaches to perform relationship analysis between multiparametric compound fingerprints with chemical structure and target hypothesis. Prioritized compound and novel drug combinations will be validated across more complex 3-dimensional and tissue based models of disease. We anticipate that combining novel image-informatics methodology with the latest human induced pluripotent stem cell based model of disease will support new unbiased approaches to the identification and characterization of novel drug candidates and drug combinations that maximize clinical efficacy of existing drugs and increase drug discovery success rates in neurodegenerative disease.

Applicants should send a covering letter, stating why they are interested in the project, along with an up-to-date CV, which includes two academic referees to [Email Address Removed] by 30 June 2017.