Dr P Uhlhaas, Dr S Lawrie
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
MRC DTP in Precision Medicine
Up to 35 fully funded studentship positions are available across the University of Glasgow and Edinburgh. Our next intake will be for PhD projects commencing September 2018.
The Precision Medicine Doctoral Training Programme (DTP) offers PhD with Integrated Study studentships funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), The University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow. Hosted by the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with the University of Glasgow and the Karolinska Institute, this prestigious programme provides PhD research training alongside taught courses over four years of study and welcomed its first cohort of students in September 2016.
This Doctoral Training Programme focuses on training PhD students in key MRC skills priorities in quantitative skills (mathematics, statistics, computation, and developing digital excellence) as applied to variety of data sources (from ‘omics’ to health records), and interdisciplinary skills including imaging and stratified medicine.
Supervisors:
Dr. Peter J Uhlhaas
Prof. Stephen Lawrie
Project Summary:
Schizophrenia (ScZ) is a severe mental illness leads to enormous economical and social costs. Because the onset of psychotic symptoms is frequently accompanied by an extended prodromal phase of up to 5–6 years, clinical high-risk (CHR) criteria have been developed that allow the identification of young people at risk of developing ScZ. While CHR-criteria are sufficient for diagnosis, they are currently not sensitive and specific enough to predict psychosis-risk on an individual level, a key objective for early intervention research. The proposed project will address this fundamental issue through the development of a multi-modal biomarker that builds upon the ongoing, Youth Mental Health Risk and Resilience Study (YouR-Study). The YouR-study aims to identify neurobiological mechanisms and predictors of psychosis-risk with neuroimaging, genetics and psychological assessments. The overall goal of the project will be to utilize and integrate this information to develop biomarkers that allow the stratification of CHR-participants based on clinical and neuroimaging as well as allow the prediction of mental health outcomes, in particular psychosis. To this end, advanced bioinformatics and machine-learning algorithms shall be employed that identify data-driven patterns obtained from ongoing analysis of neuroimaging, clinical and genetic analysis.
Funding Notes
Start: 10 September 2018
Qualifications criteria: Applicants applying for a MRC DTP in Precision Medicine studentship must have obtained, or will soon obtain, a first or upper-second class UK honours degree or equivalent non-UK qualifications, in an appropriate science/technology area.
Residence criteria: The MRC DTP in Precision Medicine grant provides tuition fees and stipend of at least £14,553 (RCUK rate 2017/18) for UK and EU nationals that meet all required eligibility criteria.
Full eligibility details are available: http://www.mrc.ac.uk/skills-careers/studentships/studentship-guidance/student-eligibility-requirements/
Enquiries regarding programme: [Email Address Removed]
Details on 'How to Apply' are available here: http://www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/mvls/graduateschool/precisionmedicine/howtoapply/
MRC DTP in Precision Medicine website: http://www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/mvls/graduateschool/precisionmedicine/