Establishment and characterization of human alveolar macrophage like cell lines

PhD Studentship available full-time or part-time

Project title: Establishment and characterization of human alveolar macrophage like cell lines
REF: 17-18-013

Start date: 1 Oct 2018

Dos: Dr Gyorgy Fejer (email: [Email Address Removed]; tel. 01752 584455)
2nd Supervisor: Prof Simon Jackson (email: [Email Address Removed]; tel. 01752 584896)
3rd Supervisor: Dr Ashwin Dhanda (email: [Email Address Removed])
4th Supervisor: Dr Chris Scotton (email: [Email Address Removed])
5th Supervisor: Dr Tina Joshi (email: [Email Address Removed]; tel: 01752 584493)
The Faculty Medicine & Dentistry are seeking to attract PhD candidates of outstanding ability to join their exciting and rapidly expanding programme of internationally-rated research. The Faculty are committed to research excellence with a recent £25 million investment in staff and facilities. Medical research in our Faculty was ranked first for outputs in REF2014.

Applications are invited from suitably qualified graduates, 2:1 or above, and preferably a relevant MSc qualification. International students must also have an IELTS score of 7.0 or above (with no less than 6.5 in any element).

Lung alveolar macrophages (AMs) play key pathogenic roles in a large number of important human respiratory disorders including infectious diseases caused by bacterial, fungal and viral pathogens. AMs are best investigated using primary cells because the genetic background of transformed macrophage lines may not be well defined. However, the availability of organ-derived primary macrophages is extremely limited which makes the study of host-pathogen interactions involving AMs problematic. Recently, we developed an in vitro model of non-transformed mouse AM-like cells (MPI cells, Fejer et al, PNAS 2013). The main characteristics of macrophages are conserved in mammals, but there are also variances between different species which make the use of human cells necessary.

The aim of this studentship is to establish continuously growing human AM-like cell lines by adapting our existing methods in mice and to demonstrate the suitability of these cells for biomedical research using various approaches of immunology and molecular biology. The student will obtain training in molecular biology, immunology, microbiology and bioinformatics techniques and will work in our new state-of-the-art purpose built facility equiped with modern core facilities for cell culture, imaging, next generation sequencing, proteomic analysis, cell biology and immunology.

For further information regarding the project, please contact Dr Gyorgy Fejer (email: [Email Address Removed]; tel. 01752 584455). However, applications must be made in accordance with the details shown below.