PhD Studentship: Understanding and Enhancing the Physiological Resilience of Older Adults to Improve Health-span: A Focus on Skeletal Muscle

Funded by the Dunhill Medical Trust (dunhillmedical.org.uk), we have three fully-funded (stipend at UKRI rates (£19,327 per annum), PhD fees (for UK nationals only) and research costs) three-year full-time PhD’s available, each to start on the 1st October 2024.

Principal supervisors:
PhD 1 - [email protected]
PhD 2 - [email protected]
PhD 3 - [email protected]

Programme description: Loss of resilience describes enhanced vulnerability to, and impaired recovery from stress events, and is commonly encountered with advancing age. Evidence suggests that skeletal muscle deterioration is a core driver of reduced resilience in older adults both with and without disease. A devastating consequence of reduced resilience is that the time people spend in good health is now much shorter than overall lifespan; an issue that we aim to help address through this collection of PhD’s.

PhD descriptions:
PhD 1 – Drug repurposing is an emerging avenue of research in the field of Geroscience. Based at the University of Nottingham Medical School at Derby (UNMSD), this PhD is focussed on exploring the impact of an already-licensed mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor on muscle growth and function in both community-dwelling older adults and orthogeriatric patients. As is the case for all of these PhD’s, the successful candidate will learn a wealth of skills relating to human physiology studies/clinical trials and state-of-the-art wet-lab techniques.

PhD 2 - This PhD will aim to address the long-standing debate surrounding the role of habitual physical activity levels in driving ageing processes in multiple organs, with a particular focus on skeletal muscle. Based at the University of Nottingham University Park campus and the UNMSD, the successful candidate will utilise magnetic resonance imaging, biotechnology and human physiology methods to assess an array of endpoints over the course of a 6-month controlled physical activity intervention.

PhD 3 – In addition to rehabilitation, there is burgeoning clinical and research interest in prehabilitation; an approach employed to prepare individuals for clinical stress events. Based at the UNMSD, this PhD will explore the interaction between novel contractile strategies and nutritional intake as both pre- and rehabilitation in older elective surgery patients, providing an evidence-base for strategies to be implemented as an adjuvant to standard care in the peri-operative period of older surgical patients.

Further information:
Applicants should have either:

• A minimum of a 2.1 in a relevant undergraduate degree (e.g., Exercise Science, Physiology, Biology), OR
• A minimum of a 2.2 undergraduate degree and a relevant Master’s degree.

Informal enquiries may be addressed to the programme lead, Prof Bethan Phillips ([email protected] ) or to the principal supervisor for each PhD.

To apply, candidates should send their CV and a short cover letter ([email protected] . The email subject line should be: “DMT PHD APPLICATION”. Candidates may apply for more than one of the PhDs listed, but should make this known in their cover letter. Candidates should also provide the contact details for 2 referees one of whom should be their most recent employer or academic supervisor.

Closing date for applications: Monday April 22nd 2024, 10:00am

Provisional interview dates: 28th and 29th May 2024

PhD Start Date: 1st October 2024, or as soon as possible thereafter.