Prof P Barran, Dr Monty Silverdale
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
The Barran group is leading a clinical trial that aims to investigate the observation that people with Parkinsons Disease (PD) have a particular odour. This has been identified by a woman whose Husband was a PD sufferer [1]. Our aim is to determine if chemicals which can be found on the skin of PD sufferers can be used as an early test to diagnose Parkinson’s disease before the movement symptoms occur. We have preliminary evidence that the sebum of PD sufferers differs from that of control individuals and that the related odorous volatile metabolites can be used to provide an early diagnostic indicator of the onset and progression of the disease. In this clinical trial we have 27 PD clinics in the UK participating complemented by the LEAP project from the Amsterdam Medical Center to collect drug-naïve, later-stage PD and control samples.
In a preliminary study, we have investigated 10+15 samples from each group using both GC-MS and LC-MS in combination with multivariant analysis to identify an initial set of possible metabolites which are responsible for the observed change in smell [2,3].
This studentship will work with Barran in collaboration with Waters Corp. to develop a pipeline of metabolite screening using both mass spectrometry and mass spectrometry coupled with Infra-red spectroscopy to separate and identify analytically distinct biomarkers for Parkinson’s Disease. Initial work in discovering a full disease specific metabolite library will then be mined to provide the minimum separation parameters needed for the successful discrimination of a given disease to specify the design parameters of a low cost point of care screening device, which could be used in clinic.
www.mbc.manchester.ac.uk
Funding Notes
This is a CASE studentship in partnership with Waters Corporation and will be funded under the MRC Doctoral Training Programme. If you are interested in this project, please make direct contact with the Supervisor to discuss the project further as soon as possible. You MUST also submit an online application form - full details on how to apply can be found here https://www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/study/research/mrc-dtp/apply/. Interviews will be held on 25th June.
Applications are invited from UK/EU nationals only. Applicants must have obtained, or be about to obtain, at least an upper second class honours degree (or equivalent) in a relevant subject.
References
1. J. Morgan, Joy of super smeller: sebum clues for PD diagnostics. The Lancet Neurology 15, 138-139.
2.W. B. Dunn et al., Procedures for large-scale metabolic profiling of serum and plasma using gas chromatography and liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Nature Protocols 6, 1060-1083 (2011).
3. P. Begley et al., Development and Performance of a Gas Chromatography-Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry Analysis for Large-Scale Non-targeted Metabolomic Studies of Human Serum. Analytical Chemistry 81, 7038–7046 (2009).
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