PhD Studentship, Human Development and Health

Human Development and Health

Location:  Southampton General Hospital
Closing Date:  Friday 15 July 2022
Reference:  1880922AF

Main Supervisor: Prof Keith Godfrey
Other members of the supervisory team:  Prof Jonathan Swann
Amount of stipend and fees: ~£16,000
Duration of the award: Four years, full time

Assessing the development of mother-offspring multi’omic “handprints” that predict child phenotypes

Project description:

Strong evidence now supports a crucial role for early metabolomes in programming lifelong health. This project based in the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre provides an important opportunity to inform new interventions to promote healthy lifecourse trajectories in the next generation.

We are seeking a talented individual to help us examine the interplay between the human mother-offspring microbial-derived metabolomes during critical windows in the first 1,000-days post-conception, and define how these shape offspring metabolic, immune and neurobehavioural outcomes.

You will undertake a series of studies, working with our metabolomic and epigenetic laboratories, acquiring metabolomic data on stored biosamples and using existing data from the published NiPPeR preconception/pregnancy randomised controlled nutritional trial. You will develop metabolomic and epigenetic analytical and bioinformatic skills during the PhD.

With appropriate training and supervision, you will analyse secondary data from participants who have taken part in a range of nutritional, clinical and laboratory assessments within the NiPPeR trial.

Closing date for applications: Friday 15th July 2022

Please contact:  Prof Keith Godfrey ([email protected] ) or Jonathan Swann ([email protected] ).

Person Specification:   See link here

You will hold a 1st class or 2:1 degree and/or second degree with a related Masters in either biomedical sciences, biochemistry, analytical chemistry, or mathematics, with an interest or experience in bioinformatics as applied to nutrition, metabolomics or epigenetics.

Funding information: 

Due to funding restrictions this position is only open to UK applicants.

Amount of stipend and fees: ~£16,000 plus fees at UK rate only

Administrative contact and how to apply:

Please complete the University's online application form, which you can find here

You should enter BRC/UoS/202223/842 as your proposed supervisor. To support your application provide an academic CV (including contact details of two referees), official academic transcripts and a personal statement (outlining your suitability for the studentship, what you hope to achieve from the PhD and your research experience to date).

Please note:

• You must state project code NLM4 in the Personal Statement section of the online application.
• The online application references an Application Assessment Fee which is not required for this studentship as it is a postgraduate research degree.

Informal enquiries relating to the project or candidate suitability should be directed to Prof Keith Godfrey ([email protected] )