About the Project
About the award
This project is one of a number funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Doctoral Training Partnership to commence in September 2018. This project is in direct competition with others for funding; the projects which receive the best applicants will be awarded the funding.
The studentships will provide funding for a stipend which is currently £14,553 per annum for 2017-2018. It will provide research costs and UK/EU tuition fees at Research Council UK rates for 42 months (3.5 years) for full-time students, pro rata for part-time students.
Please note that of the total number of projects within the competition, up to 15 studentships will be filled.
Location
Streatham Campus, Exeter
Project Description
Aim: Develop, characterize, and apply a device to experimentally study populations of microbes under well-defined conditions on surfaces.
Background: Many microbial populations live on surfaces, but the ecological and evolutionary consequences of the resulting spatial structure are not well understood. This is not least due to the lack of suitable experimental techniques. Investigating colonies on standard agar plates is constrained by limited nutrient availability and the lack of options to change the environmental conditions over the course of the experiment. To enable highly quantitative experiments, spatial analogues of chemostats and microfluidic chambers are needed, which both enable continuous, and ideally infinite, growth by continuous influx of nutrients.
Project: This project aims to close this gap by developing novel techniques enabling long-term growth in two dimensions. In particular, two setups will be considered: (i) Growth of populations at an agar-air interface with supply of nutrients and control of the environment by a system of fluidic tubing below the agar surface. (ii) Growth of populations within a flat chamber made of plastic with nutrients provided and environment controlled through a membrane and a fluidic network.
The project will involve development, characterization, and application of the device. Development will be based on theoretical considerations and reaction-diffusion modelling. Once candidate devices are built, they will be characterized using populations of the well-understood bacterium E. coli, using microscopy and quantitative image analysis. In particular, experiments will entail studying the growth dynamics of colonies.
To showcase and test the device, it will finally be used to study evolution of bacteria and bacteriophage over the course of many days. Possible applications are the study of the evolution of antibiotic resistance within growing colonies and the evolution of bacteriophage as they spread on lawns of bacteria. In this way, development of the technique will be coupled to its application and possibly new findings in microbial evolution and ecology.
Funding, training, and experience to be gained: Funding is available for 3.5 years. During this time, the candidate will be trained and gain research experience in the techniques involved and described above. The project will be co-supervised by researchers with experience in microbiology, physics, and device engineering and represents an opportunity to join the community at the Living Systems Institute, which, as a whole, pursues technology development and basic research as well. The combination of modelling and experiments at the one hand and development and application on the other hand will provide a very competitive skill set.
Suitability: The project is suitable for candidates with different backgrounds, ranging from microbiology to bioengineering. Interest in a wide range of subjects is recommended as this project draws methods from different fields.
Entry Requirements
You should have or expect to achieve at least a 2:1 Honours degree, or equivalent, in a physical or biological science. Experience in working in a biological laboratory is desirable.
If English is not your first language you will need to meet the English language requirements and provide proof of proficiency.
The majority of the studentships are available for applicants who are ordinarily resident in the UK and are classed as UK/EU for tuition fee purposes. If you have not resided in the UK for at least 3 years prior to the start of the studentship, you are not eligible for a maintenance allowance so you would need an alternative source of funding for living costs. To be eligible for fees-only funding you must be ordinarily resident in a member state of the EU.
Applicants who are classed as International for tuition fee purposes are NOT eligible for funding. International students interested in studying at the University of Exeter should search our funding database for alternative options.