MRC AIM Doctoral Training Partnership

Reference

SCI2044

Closing Date

Sunday, 9th January 2022

Department

Psychology

The AIM (Advanced Inter-Disciplinary Models) DTP is funded by the Medical Research Council between three Partners – the Universities of Birmingham, Leicester and Nottingham – and three more Associate Partners – the Research Complex at Harwell, Mary Lyon Centre and Rosalind Franklin Institute. We have a range of exciting and diverse PhD 4-year projects at all 3 Institutions which are now open for a September 2022 start and those available at The University of Nottingham are detailed below.

Application deadline: The deadline for submitting applications is Sunday 9 January 2022. Please ensure that your application is submitted with all required documentation as incomplete applications will not be considered.

Interviews: Interviews will take place Tuesday 1, Thursday 3 and Friday 4 March 2022 and will be held via Zoom.  You will need to ensure that you are available on these days for interview if you are shortlisted.

Academic requirement: Minimum qualifications and experience to undertake a research degree are detailed in the QAA UK Quality Code for Higher Education. For some subject areas, there is also an expectation that an individual will have undertaken a Masters qualification before beginning a doctoral programme. Candidates should possess the relevant qualifications and/or experience to demonstrate a capability to undertake a doctorate, which will be assessed during the recruitment process.  More details can be found on the MRC website.

Applicant Q&A session: The DTP Leads are holding an information / Q&A session for prospective candidates interested in applying to the DTP on Thursday 9 December 10:00 – 11:00 GMT via Zoom.  If you are thinking of submitting an application(s) to the DTP, you are invited and encouraged to attend the session.  Please register for the event by clicking on the link here before 16:00 GMT on Wednesday 8 December.

How to apply: Please complete the AIM application form one and application form two as well as the AIM equal opportunities form . These can be downloaded at https://more.bham.ac.uk/mrc-aim/phd-opportunities/ . You will need to ensure that your referees complete the AIM referee form and submit this to [email protected] in support of your application.

Completed applications to be submitted to [email protected] before the deadline of Sunday 9 January 2022 .

Due to stipulations from the funders, recruitment for international candidates to the DTP is capped at 30% of the whole cohort.

Projects open for application in the School of Psychology:

Multimodal imaging and analysis for monitoring physiological changes during brain injury

Professor Claire Gibson, Dr Peter Harvey and Dr Valentina Di Pietro

Annually in the UK, there are 100,000 strokes and 160,000 people admitted to hospital with a traumatic head injury – it is estimated that over 2 million people live with the long-term, debilitating consequences of a stroke or head injury.

Currently, we lack tools for effectively treating and monitoring brain injuries. One major limitation in developing new therapies is our lack of knowledge of the function and condition of brain tissue during and after traumatic and non-traumatic injury.

This project will develop and apply molecular imaging and microRNA analyses to monitor the physiological and molecular biomarkers of brain tissue during and after brain injuries. Rodent models of both stroke and traumatic brain injury will be used to compare approaches and results across pathologies. Comparison and cross-validation of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and microRNA datasets will enhance the biological data obtained and increase likelihood of clinical translation.

This highly interdisciplinary project will involve chemical synthesis, histology, in vivo experiments, and analysis of MRI and microRNA datasets. The supervisory team and experimental facilities spans multiple complimentary departments, including the Schools of Medicine, Chemistry, Psychology, Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, and Precision Imaging Beacon at UoN, and Institute of Inflammation and Ageing at UoB.