MRC PhD Doctoral Training Programme

This theme combines mental health research with the strategy of ‘Replace and Refinement’ and is approached from multiple angles ranging from developmental neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience, the genetics and biochemistry of neurodegenerative diseases and addiction and psychiatric disorders.

This theme is centered on molecular microbiology, the biochemistry of immunological signalling pathways and parasitology. The research aims to understand the basic biology of microbial pathogens, as well as host immune responses to them.

This theme focuses on the study of the maintenance of genomic stability, the response to genome and the response to metabolic stresses. These areas are central to many important human diseases, including cancer, diabetes and pathologies associated with aging.

Projects offered are embedded into technological platforms, in particular those producing data from ‘OMICS’ approaches in combination with computational analysis and modelling of molecular data sets in relation to disease.

• Introductory course delivering intensive training in tissue culture, molecular biology, proteomics, cell imaging, flow cytometry
• PhD projects in laboratories run by internationally renowned scientists
• Structured training and mentoring programme covering computational biology, mathematical biology and statistics
• Competitive stipend of £16,000 per annum, tuition fees, laptop, contribution to travel and conference costs

Professional development of our students is an integral part of the programme and is supported through generic skills workshops at the University of Dundee. These workshops are designed to equip postgraduates with an appropriate range of professional scientific skills. All postgraduates also have access to optional additional training such as “Personal Effectiveness and Career Development”, “Finance, Business and Marketing” and “Project Management and Statistics” through Organisation and Professional Development (OPD) Dundee. The depth and breadth of this programme allows the participant to tailor the training to their own specific requirements.

All postgraduate students will present their work regularly, including at annual school and cohort-based retreats.

This innovative and streamlined programme offers young students a choice of well-supervised, high quality quantitative and interdisciplinary science projects at the forefront of international science.