PhD Studentship: Investigating human skin-bacteria interactions during wound healing

Project Supervisors:

Dr David Ansell, Dr Antony Scimone

Project Description:

Wound infection presents a global health challenge. Surgical site infection affects 0.5-3% of all surgeries and is prevented through preoperative antibiotics, the effectiveness of which will reduce over time due to anti-microbial resistance. Non-healing wounds (Chronic wounds), such as diabetic foot ulcer, venous leg ulcer and pressure ulcer are another major area of unmet clinical need. Chronic wounds are especially difficult to treat, since they are typically infected with pathogens that form biofilms and are resistance to antibiotics.  

However, our skin is frequently broken with minor cuts and injuries as we go about our normal lives, which exposes ourselves to a wide range of outside pathogens, but these rarely result in any chronic infection. We hypothesise that our immune system communicates with our skin microbiome and that the commensal microflora present on our skin surface may influence our wound healing response. This project examines the microbe-microbe and microbe-host interactions that occur within different wound situations. Using our ex vivo experimental wound models (Nasir et al., 2019) we hope to identify new ways to prevent wound infections.

This project will be based in the Centre for Skin Sciences (CSS) laboratories, which sits with the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Bradford. The successful applicant will become part of the CSS, one of the largest Skin research centres in the UK, with state-of-the-art facilities to conduct high quality research. This includes our dedicated skin microbiome lab for the co-culture of bacteria alongside human tissue.

The student will be also become a member of our widening PGR community and gain access to specialized training opportunities (soft skills, academic mentoring etc) as part of the UoB PGR framework.

Funding notes:

This project is being funded by The British Skin Foundation. The British Skin Foundation is the only UK charity that raises money to fund research into all types of skin diseases, including skin cancer.

The project is fully funded for three years. Funding covers the tuition fees, research consumables and a tax-free stipend of £19,162 p.a. (with inflationary increases in years 2 and 3).

Funding for:

UK Students

Enquiries email name and address:  

For informal enquiries, please contact Dr David Ansell ([email protected] )

How to apply:

Potential candidates should apply directly online through the online application portal.