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Supervisor: Professor Alex Ford

Both pollution and parasites can have profound impacts on the population dynamics and aquatic species. These projects would look at the interaction of parasites and pollution in keystone crustacean species around the UK. The project would entail field samples and laboratory work to identify parasites potentially using histological, image analysis and molecular techniques.

Supervisor: Professor Alex Ford

Coastal washups and stranding events occur regularly around the British coasts with starfish, crustaceans, bivalves and marine mammals often making local and national news coverage. This project would catalogue the frequency of marine washup events assess the temporal and spatial relationship with different species. This project would entail database generation, investigative analysis of historical press articles and GIS analysis of mapped results.

Supervisor: Professor Alex Ford

Scientists have highlighted a need to better integrate ‘behaviour’ into environmental toxicity risk assessments to better determine how chemical contaminants impact human and ecosystem health. Crustaceans have been demonstrated to be sensitive to both chemical pollutants (e.g. pharmaceuticals) and physical stressors (e.g. light, electromagnetic fields). This project would develop novel behavioural assays for key crustacean species. The student would be trained in basic ecotoxicology and video tracking technologies.

Supervisor: Professor Alex Ford

The flounder (Platichthys flesus) is a common flatfish around British shores although anecdotally its numbers have diminished locally around Langstone Harbour (Portsmouth, UK). This study would use a number of investigative approaches to assess and collate historical records on flounder numbers in the local harbours and try to ascertain potential reasons for their decline.

Supervisor: Professor Andrew Pickford

Nylon waste poses a serious environmental challenge due to its durability and resistance to biodegradation. This project aims to develop a chemi-enzymatic recycling process to depolymerize nylon-6 and nylon-6,6 into reusable monomers, reducing dependence on petroleum-based inputs. The approach combines mild chemical pre-treatment with enzymatic hydrolysis to achieve complete breakdown. Acid/base hydrolysis and solvent-assisted swelling will be explored to enhance enzyme access to amide bonds. A range of recombinant amidases, cutinases and nylonases will be screened for activity on nylon oligomers. Promising enzymes will undergo directed evolution or rational design to improve stability, specificity and efficiency. Reaction conditions will be optimized to maximize monomer yield. The ultimate goal is a scalable, low-energy recycling process that supports a circular economy for polyamides, significantly cutting plastic waste and the carbon footprint of nylon production.

Supervisor: Professor Andrew Pickford

Polyester-based materials, widely used in textiles and packaging, contribute to environmental pollution due to their resistance to degradation. This project aims to engineer enzymes capable of efficiently breaking down polyesters like PET and PLA through directed evolution and/or rational design. Key steps include cloning and expressing variants of IsPETase, leaf compost cutinase and other esterases, followed by mutagenesis to enhance activity and specificity. Enzyme variants will be produced in microbial hosts and screened via high-throughput assays for degradation of polyester films and powders. Top candidates will be tested in pH-controlled bioreactors for large-scale hydrolysis. The goal is to develop robust enzymes that enable effective biorecycling and environmental remediation. By improving polyester degradation, this research supports sustainable waste management and aligns with global efforts to reduce plastic pollution and promote circular economy practices in the polymer industry.

Supervisor: Professor Andrew Pickford

This project aims to engineer the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica for the enzymatic degradation of polyester plastics, particularly polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polylactic acid (PLA). Leveraging its robust metabolism, secretory capacity and genetic tractability, Y. lipolytica will be modified to express and secrete optimized polyester-degrading enzymes such as PETase, MHETase, and cutinases. Rational design will be used to enhance enzyme stability and activity under environmental conditions. Engineered strains will be evaluated for growth and degradation efficiency on polyester films and microplastics in controlled bioreactor systems. The project will also explore metabolic pathways for monomer assimilation, enabling potential valorisation of degradation products. This work supports sustainable plastic waste management by developing a scalable microbial platform for polyester bioremediation and recycling, contributing to circular economy goals and reducing environmental plastic accumulation.

Supervisor: Dr Athanasios Rizoulis

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are hotspots of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This project will investigate: i) the microbial diversity in wastewater and biofilm samples collected from a WWTP, ii) the presence of multidrug-resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) in a WWTP, and iii) the possibility of microplastics serving as vectors for AMR. Several techniques will be used in this project, including culture-based and molecular microbiology techniques (such as profiling of microbial communities using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, PCR using ARG-specific primers), as well as light and scanning electron microscopy.

Supervisor: Dr Binuraj Menon

Plastic pollution is a major global issue, with over 400 million tonnes of plastic waste generated annually, including 12.49 million tonnes of durable ABS plastics used in products like LEGO bricks and electronics. These plastics are not biodegradable and can persist in the environment for thousands of years. This project, based at the Centre for Enzyme Innovation (CEI), aims to tackle this problem by developing enzymes that can break down these tough plastics into their basic building blocks. By studying natural enzymes found in plant microbiomes and enhancing them through protein engineering and artificial intelligence, the team is creating faster, more efficient plastic-degrading enzymes. The project involves exploring microbial interactions, enzyme structure and function, and using advanced techniques like directed evolution and high-throughput screening. The ultimate goal is to create a new generation of biocatalysts that can help recycle some of the world’s most persistent plastic waste in an environmentally friendly way.

Supervisor: Dr Binuraj Menon

This project focuses on developing sustainable, biodegradable polymers using synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. Traditional polymers, derived from petrochemicals, pose significant environmental and economic risks. By leveraging bacterial biosynthetic pathways, particularly those involved in natural polyester production, the project aims to engineer E. coli and other hosts to produce bioplastics. Initial pathways are adapted from a previously established butanol biosynthesis route. The research involves identifying key genes in early polyester biosynthesis, integrating transporter genes, and enabling the production of polymer units. These units can be chemically or enzymatically modified further to create novel biomaterials suitable for biomedical and industrial applications. The work spans bioinformatics, molecular biology, protein engineering, metabolic pathway optimization, enzymology, and chemical synthesis. The goal is to generate a new class of biocompatible, functionalized biopolymers to use as a hybrid biomaterial or as a bio-molecular conjugate.

Supervisor: Dr Bruce Lichtenstein

In nature, redox-active cofactors function as components in electronic circuitry, facilitating essential life processes like respiration and photosynthesis by enabling a diverse array of chemical reactions. By designing and synthesising novel cofactors, we aim to create molecules that can perform specialised redox reactions beyond those found in nature. This project will involve a comprehensive exploration of the physical and chemical properties of these new-to-nature cofactors, and by combining these synthetic cofactors with tailored protein binders, we seek to clarify the principles of energy transfer, paving the way for the development of biological wires, transistors, and orthogonal metabolic systems, opening doors to sustainable technologies in bioenergetics and biotechnology. This project would suit someone with a chemistry, biochemistry or pharmacology background interested in interdisciplinary research, who wants to work at a cross-section of chemical biology and protein biochemistry. The project can be adapted to fit your individual interests and training needs.

Supervisor: Dr Bruce Lichtenstein

One of biology’s major challenges is delivering macromolecular complexes to specific intracellular sites. While mRNA vaccines showcase the potential of macromolecule delivery, we are still far from achieving precise control at the organelle level. Our lab is developing novel delivery tools based on engineered AB5 toxins, which can transport diverse protein cargoes into eukaryotic cells. This project will explore the limits of this system by delivering supramolecular protein assemblies with defined functions to selected subcellular environments. The work bridges protein biochemistry, cell biology, and synthetic biology, with applications in targeted therapy and cell engineering. It would suit a student with a background in biology, biochemistry, or pharmacology, who is interested in interdisciplinary research and excited to work at the interface of fundamental science and translational potential. The project is flexible and can be tailored to align with your interests and training goals.

Supervisor: Dr Bruce Lichtenstein

Proteins are remarkably versatile biomolecules that can catalyse a vast array of reactions, making them ideal candidates for creating sustainable processes that minimize waste and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. This project aims to expand the capabilities of proteins beyond what nature can access for applications such as light-harvesting, environmental remediation or plastic bio-recycling. By utilising cutting-edge protein design and extensive biophysical characterisation techniques, we aim to optimize the stability and efficiency of these engineered proteins for effective performance in industrial settings. The outcomes of this research will pave the way for ground-breaking technologies that enable eco-friendly manufacturing and renewable energy production, ultimately contributing to a circular economy. This project would suit a biochemist or a biologist interested in interdisciplinary research, who wants to work at a cross-section of protein design, biophysics and chemistry. The project will be adapted to fit your individual interests and training needs.

Supervisor: Dr Carmen Falagan

Bioleaching is a biotechnology currently used for the extraction of metals (e.g. copper, nickel, gold) from minerals using microorganisms (acidophiles). These technologies are based on the ability of acidophilic microorganisms to oxidise iron and sulphur at extremely low pH values of 2.0. This project will look at the microbial diversity of acidophiles during the bioleaching of mine waste at different temperatures (30 °C to 60 °C). Laboratory experiments will be performed to understand how the microbial diversity changes at different stages of the bioleaching process. Microbial diversity will be monitored during the course of the experiments together with physico-chemical parameters such as pH, redox potential, iron speciation, and metal extraction rates. You will familiarise yourself with a diverse range of techniques in the field of biotechnology and environmental microbiology including Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES), multiparameter pH and redox meter, spectrophotometry, DNA extraction, next-generation sequencing, and bioinformatics.

Supervisor: Dr Fiona Myers

It is now clear from the recent literature that the i-motif can form in biological systems under normal physiological conditions. This project will primarily aim to compare stable i-motif formation between developmental stages of Xenopus tropicalis to understand the potential role of i-motifs in developmental regulation. The methodology to do this has emerged after the development of a highly specific anti-i-motif antibody which has opened the possibility of precise identification of i-motif sequences and their locations within genomic DNA. Using this antibody and chromatin extracted from Xenopus tropicalis embryos, we will apply the CUT & Tag assay to efficiently isolate DNA sequences forming i-motifs within cells. The Xenopus model system is very suitable due to the availability of large numbers of synchronously developing embryos. Early embryos are best suited to identifying the widest range of active DNA elements.

Supervisor: Dr Ian Hendy

Seahorses are considered rare, vulnerable and threatened. Impacts to their population are threatened by habitat loss, destructive activities and pollution. This project aims to understand the ideal seahorse habitat and determine the key environmental variables for the perfect seahorse conditions. Areas across the Solent will be mapped, and the abundance and distribution of seahorses will be monitored, while measuring and assessing environmental conditions. Additionally, artificial habitats, seahorse hotels’ will be deployed to determine if seahorse will recruit to man-made structure in coastally developed areas.

Supervisor: Dr Ian Hendy

Sharks and rays are a data poor group of taxa, particularly in consideration of fishery management and conservation. Many elasmobranch species lack crucial information about their ecology, biology, and distribution. Increasing conservation efforts, the Isle of Wight UNESCO Biosphere serves to enhance and protect key shallow water habitats around the coast of the Island. This exciting research project feeds directly into enhancing our understanding of sharks and rays. Depending on the project, you will be conducting snorkel surveys, employing video cameras, and conducting morphometrics. The data will feed directly into fishery management plans and help UNESCO gain further insight into elasmobranch ecology.

Supervisor: Dr Ian Hendy

This project is based in North Devon, in collaboration with industrial partners. We are losing essential fish habitats (EFH) due to destructive activities and coastal development. EFHs deliver a host of crucial ecosystem services, supporting local communities and significantly enhancing the economy. To help reduce the loss of natural habitats, we are working with a sustainable aquaculture farm to understand the benefits of an integrated multi-trophic aquaculture facility (IMTA). We will be studying the biological and environmental markers from farming sugar kelp and mussels, by measuring changes to local biodiversity and water quality parameters. 

Supervisor: Dr Ian Hendy

This project is extremely novel and is a new-to-science never-before studied ecosystem in terms of comparisons to a tropical mangrove forest. Impacts from climate change, and loss of key structurally complex habitat means catastrophic losses to biodiversity, trophic resilience and connectivity. This groundbreaking research project will feed directly into UNESCO regarding blue-carbon and biodiversity uplift. Depending on your chosen project, you will be able to investigate the benefits of environmental buffering and how that feeds into future-predicted climate-change models, measure above- and below-ground carbon stores, and determine the nursery function of these coastal forests by looking at many different taxa ranging from crabs to fish.

Supervisor: Dr Kenneth Wasmund

Bacteria of the Candidate Phyla Radiation (CPR), aka Patescibacteriota, are a recently discovered lineage of the Bacteria domain that are generally known as ultra-small bacterial parasites of other bacteria. They are widespread and abundant, have small cell sizes, small genomes, and limited biosynthetic capabilities, and often associate directly with host cells via physical contact. While CPR bacteria have been studied in various habitats, very little is known about CPR bacteria in marine systems despite being such a massive microbial habitat. This project therefore primarily aims to determine if the marine CPR bacteria observed in experimental seawater microcosms are associated with host bacteria, and determine their identity. This will involve a combination of microcosm experiments to enrich CPR bacteria, and that will be analysed by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) imaging techniques, electron microscopy, fluorescence activated cell-sorting, and 16S rRNA gene and metagenomic sequencing approaches. 

Supervisor: Dr Kenneth Wasmund

Microbes are key for recycling nutrients and elements from large macromolecules like carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids, which are often prevalent and degraded by specific microbes functioning within complex communities. While the degradation of individual macromolecules and interactions that occur during these processes has been studied before, the processes and interactions that occur when they are degraded simultaneously, has not been studied at all. This is important to understand because molecules like nucleic acids and proteins, may supply key nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus to other macromolecule degraders. This project will involve experimental lab work with seawater communities and/or specific isolates. Chitin-coated beads with magnetic particles inside will be used as a model for examining the colonisation and degradation of the abundant marine polysaccharide. Microbial communities attached to them will be analysed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing, by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) imaging techniques and metagenomics.

Supervisor: Dr Lena Grinsted

Group-living Cyrtophora citricola spiders build large, connected webs wherein they defend individual territories. Their silken colonies are sturdy and long-lasting and provide a habitat for a multitude of other organisms, from klepto-parasitic Argyrodes spiders to opportunistic predatory Holocnemus spiders and parasitoid Philolema wasps. In this project you will design a lab- and/or field-based behavioural ecology project to elucidate the interactions between two or more of the species in this unique community. The project will consist of manipulating species compositions within spider webs, observing interspecific behaviours and estimating evolutionary fitness outcomes. 

Supervisor: Dr Nicolai Roterman

Some of the most extensive coral habitats on the planet are far below the surface of the ocean; down to depths of 1000 m or greater, where there is little or no light and ambient temperatures are well below 10˚C. These corals are sustained by organic material sinking from the sea surface, providing a huge amount of habitat complexity; and hosting a range of associated fauna. In recent years there has been increased interest in such habitats owing their importance in sequestering carbon, their role as fish nurseries, their high biodiversity, and the increasing threats of human activity. While much of the research focus is on the habitat forming coral, much less is known about the associated fauna. One of the more prominent grazers and predators in habitats are cidaroid urchins. The diversity and distribution of these urchins – ‘considered living fossils’ – is little known. The student will employ phylogenetic and population genetic tools to reveal patterns of evolution and population connectivity in deep-sea urchins from DNA sequences already acquired. Additionally there is scope to acquire more specimens and to employ DNA-based lab techniques (DNA extraction, PCR, DNA sequencing).

Supervisor: Dr Nicolai Roterman

The false widow spider (Steatoda nobilis) – an invasive species in the UK and around the world – has received a lot of publicity in recent years. They are reported to have arrived on the English south coast from the Canary Islands in the 19th century and have since been expanding northwards in the UK, becoming prevalent around buildings. Understanding the spread of S. nobilis around the world and why they are successful invasives will provide valuable information for stakeholders concerned with the impacts of invasives. In this project, the student will use primarily population genetics tools to reveal patterns of population connectivity and demography in the UK and potentially, globally. Some specimens have already been collected and the COI gene sequenced. Initially, this will therefore be a data analysis project. The student will learn to use a suite of bioinformatic tools to characterise patterns of genetic diversity, with the additional possibility of further specimen collection and DNA-based lab work (DNA extraction, PCR, DNA sequencing). There is also scope for an additional project focusing more on the behaviour of the spider, along with other aspects of its biology which might involve either field or lab-based experiments. 

Supervisor: Dr Nicolai Roterman

Studying the life history and behaviour of animals adapted to the extreme environment of deep-sea hydrothermal vents, such as the yeti crab Kiwa tyleri can provide a unique insight into evolution and adaptation. However, many species inhabiting deep-sea hydrothermal vents are poorly understood, with large gaps in our basic knowledge of their life history and behaviour. These environments are challenging to access, so animals cannot easily be observed long term and in fact K. tyleri was only formally described in 2015. One way to better understand these enigmatic animals is to systematically characterise their morphology at different stages of maturity. For K. tyleri (amongst other taxa), enough specimens have been collected from vents in the Southern and Indian Oceans to allow for a systematic analysis. This will involve a variety of methods, from traditional morphometric techniques to more recent geometric morphometric analyses of images; and also 3-D scanning techniques. The aims of the project will be to characterise key aspects of morphology relating to survival in low oxygen environments, as well as feeding, mating and behaviour. This project will provide new insights into species living in some of the most extreme environments on Earth.

Supervisor: Dr Nicolai Roterman

In recent years there has been an increased public interest in the deep sea relating – amongst other things – to its importance in sequestering carbon and the looming anthropogenic impacts of climate change, pollution and mining. A key question is how large and resilient are deep-sea populations? One way to answer this is to employ population genetic analyses to infer the size and demographic stability of populations in the recent past. Over the past 30 years there has been an explosion of population genetic studies on invertebrate species inhabiting the deep-sea floor (depths >200 m) and there are now enough studies published to allow for the analyses of these datasets together (meta-analyses). Population genetic research on shallow-water temperate marine species has revealed a general trend of demographic expansion (population growth) occurring since the last glacial maximum (~20,000 years ago), when the climate began to warm. However, little is known of how a changing climate impacted deep-sea species, which live in more thermally constant conditions (<10 ˚C). In this project, the student will compile relevant studies and re-analyse those data to model past demographic patterns in order to provide better insight into the resilience of deep-sea populations to future anthropogenic impacts.

Supervisor: Dr Fran Cabada-Blanco

This project aims to identify critical knowledge gaps in the conservation of tropical shallow coral reefs by identifying knowledge gaps of key life history traits that influence extinction vulnerability. By integrating data from literature reviews and online repositories, the student will perform a gap analysis across reef-building and cold-water/deep-water coral species. This information will help improve extinction risk assessments by addressing trait-based uncertainties and inform priorities for research and monitoring, ultimately supporting targeted conservation interventions. This is a desk-based project without field and lab work. Previous and demonstrable experience working with biodiversity information facilities and/or use of API to access databases, as well as working knowledge of R and advanced use of spreadsheet softwares is required of any candidate. Knowledge about Anthozoa biology and ecology is also essential.

Supervisor: Dr Ian Hendy

Kelp forests are ecologically and environmentally crucial shallow water habitats that help mitigate impacts from climate change and biodiversity. This exciting project aims to explore innovative and new areas of kelp research. This project will take a forensic dive explaining fundamental aspects of what, why and how habitat complexity enhances trophic and climate-change resilience. We aim to understand how kelp forests help reduce species mortality and improve survivability in times of environmental stress. We will be observing fish behaviour, and measuring environmental variables such as temperature, light intensity, and DO2.

Supervisor: Professor Leanne Proops

The effects of plastic pollution on marine environments and wildlife are widely acknowledged. Yet the effects on terrestrial ecosystems and livestock are understudied and equally concerning. In many countries, livestock graze open waste sites, consuming macroplastics that affect health and can result in death – in turn affecting owner prosperity. Even if livestock appear unharmed, meat and milk often contain microplastics that may affect human health. Similarly, terrestrial wildlife are exposed to increasing amount of plastic pollution that affects health and behaviour. This is a multidisciplinary project, where students can contribute in a multiple ways, from exploring and educating public knowledge on the effects of plastic pollution and observing animal behaviour to analysing microplastic content.

Supervisor: Dr Mo Hoque

Mining has left a legacy of contaminated sites that continue to pose risks to ecosystems and human health. This project explores innovative approaches to identify and map contamination “hotspots” using LiDAR data, hydrological modelling, and environmental geoscience principles. Working with digital terrain models, open geochemical datasets, and case study sites in Cornwall, the student will examine how pollutants such as arsenic, lead and zinc move across landscapes. Depending on interests and skills, the project may focus on field sampling, laboratory analysis, geospatial modelling, or assessing climate change impacts on contaminant mobility. The findings will contribute to a geoenvironmental risk intelligence framework that can support local authorities and future site remediation strategies.

Supervisor: Dr Mo Hoque

Arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh remains one of the world’s largest mass poisonings, affecting millions of people. The iArsenic project is developing both digital and household-based tools to provide low-cost, accessible ways of assessing tubewell safety. Students may contribute in different ways depending on their interests and skills. Options include refining predictive models using large water quality datasets, validating the performance of the iArsenic app with real-world field samples, or contributing to laboratory development and testing of a prototype household arsenic kit. Other possible foci include geospatial modelling, risk communication, and user-centred technology adoption. The project is flexible and can be shaped around computational, laboratory, or mixed methods approaches. The findings will feed into a real-world intervention that seeks to reduce exposure for millions of people while informing future public health and environmental policy.

Supervisor: Dr Mo Hoque

Coastal deltas are increasingly exposed to salinisation of both soils and water, driven by sea level rise, tidal surges, reduced river discharge, and land use change. These environmental shifts not only affect agriculture and livelihoods but are also linked to a growing burden of non-communicable diseases (such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and kidney illness) in affected populations. This project will investigate pathways between environmental salinity and human health, with a focus on prediction and risk assessment in South and South East Asian deltas. Depending on interest, the student may work on criteria and models for soil and water salinity prediction, analyse environmental and health datasets, or examine how salinity exposure translates into community vulnerability. The project is desk-based, with scope to engage with interdisciplinary research on environment–health interactions. The findings will support evidence-based strategies for adapting to climate change impacts in vulnerable delta regions.

Supervisor: Dr Steven Kapp

Calling for a project (for a student with an excellent academic background and related interests) to begin in autumn 2026 regarding autistic adults' views of autistic traits and the autism diagnosis. The diagnosis was developed by non-autistic people, emphasises behaviour (which privileges observers), and is part of a deficit-based medical model. Yet prior research has suggested that autistic adults tend to hold more scientifically accurate, nuanced (holistic rather than pathological), and neurocognitive (as opposed to behavioural) views of autism than non-autistic peers. Yet white people and people who might have lower support needs have been overrepresented in such research. It is important to gather the views of autistic adults especially from non-Western backgrounds and with higher support needs, regarding concepts such as autism and related concepts such as "profound autism" and "pathological demand avoidance".

Supervisor: Dr Tom Lockhart

Anxiety is a serious mental health concern, with anxiety disorders affecting 11% of the UK population at any given time and resulting in 14.5 million sick days a year. Current assessment methods for anxiety, such as self-report questionnaires, are subjective and time-consuming. To improve this, objective biological markers (biomarkers) are needed for reliable diagnosis and long-term monitoring. This MRes project will evaluate two validated EEG biomarkers for anxiety: goal conflict specific rhythmicity and frontal to posterior theta coherence. While these markers are known to measure anxiety, their stability over time and reliability at an individual level remain unknown, despite these being crucial factors for clinical use. The successful student will collect multiple electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings from participants over several weeks. This research is vital to test the stability and individual-level reliability of these biomarkers, taking a key step towards developing an objective tool for diagnosing and monitoring excessive anxiety.

Supervisor: Dr Frank Schubert

Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a paediatric brain tumour for which there is currently no cure. The cancer cells typically carry a K27M mutation in a histone (H3.1 or H3.3), resulting in genome-wide hypomethylation. The project aims at using in-ovo electroporation to introduce the histone mutation along with other driver mutations into the embryonic chicken brain. This will allow us to investigate the early molecular and cellular changes induced by the mutations, and thus characterise initial steps in DIPG tumourigenesis. The project requires background knowledge in molecular cell biology. You will use a range of techniques from embryo manipulation to in situ hybridisation or immunofluorescence.

Supervisor: Dr Frank Schubert

Neurogenesis, the differentiation of neurons from neural progenitor cells, is a well-characterised cellular process involving a group of proneural transcription factors like Neurog2 and Ascl1. While all neural progenitors are competent to differentiate, in the early embryonic brain the expression of proneural genes is restricted to three distinct clusters. This provides a model to investigate how the expression of these genes, and hence the induction of neurogenesis, is regulated by cell-cell signalling. Building on our previous work on the early neuronal connections, the project aims to analyse the signalling mechanisms involved, using pharmacological and genetic manipulation of early chicken embryos. The project requires background knowledge in molecular cell biology. You will use a range of techniques from molecular cloning to in situ hybridisation.

Supervisor: Dr David Rusling

This project proposes an original and transformative idea: using triplex-forming oligonucleotides (TFOs) to fold and functionalise double-stranded DNA into origami-like structures capable of delivering, storing, studying and manipulating the expression of nucleic acid information in 3D in living cells. This represents a significant departure from traditional nucleic acid delivery and characterisation approaches, addressing longstanding limitations in packaging capacity, storage, cellular stress, and immunogenicity. Briefly, the project will utilise biochemical, biophysical, and imaging techniques to characterise the folding of specific gene sequences, as well as cell culture methods to assay their delivery and expression inside living cells.

Supervisor: Dr Despoina Aslanoglou

Catecholamines (dopamine, adrenaline, noradrenaline) and their respective receptors (G protein-coupled receptors) play crucial roles in the central nervous system as well as the periphery. A newly identified complex signaling network has been described between dopaminergic and adrenergic receptors, with an important functional role in the regulation of pancreatic hormone secretion. This makes the complex signaling interplay an attractive target for drug discovery in terms of 1) metabolic disorders such as diabetes as well as for 2) CNS related disorders, such as psychosis. The project aims to decipher the complexity of this signaling intercommunication and understand its role in neuronal and pancreatic cells. Studying cell type specific signaling events can potentially lead to improved therapeutic approaches for treating metabolic dysfunction and psychosis-related disorders. Our lab uses a variety of biochemical, pharmacological and optical methods to study receptor signaling events and biological responses in mammalian cell lines and human tissue.

Supervisor: Dr Gavin Fullstone

Quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) is a branch of pharmacology that is gaining increasing traction in the drug development, pre-clinical and clinical assessment process. By combining traditional pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamics with detailed mechanistic models of biological and disease processes from systems biology in computational QSP models, we can achieve an unparalleled holistic understanding of the intwined processes of drug clearance, distribution, toxicity and efficacy.
We are interested in the establishment and application of cutting-edge data-driven QSP models to aid the development of precision therapeutics and in the personalised selection of optimal therapeutics (or combinations) based on individual patient data.

You will work on one of our active research areas (TBD with the student) including (1) model-informed development of therapeutics that cross the blood-brain barrier to target the brain, (2) application of QSP modelling to support personalised therapeutic decisions in cancer or (3) implementation and testing of new modelling paradigms to improve QSP modelling.

Supervisor: Professor Marta Roldo

The project aims to study different surface modification treatments developed on titanium implantable devices for dental or orthopaedic applications. The design strategy is to provide multifunctional implant surfaces that can respond to various predictable and unpredictable situations after implantation, helping preserve optimal implant function in the short, medium and long term.

Implant-associated infections often result from bacterial adhesion and subsequent biofilm formation. This process starts with bacterial attachment to the surface, followed by biofilm development involving multilayered bacterial proliferation and an intercellular matrix. Biofilm bacteria are resistant to host defences and antibiotic treatments, making infections difficult to eliminate and often leading to chronic inflammation and implant failure.

The focus of the project is the characterisation and testing of novel multifunctional titanium materials that can prevent biofilm formation and promote soft tissue integration to improve the success of dental and orthopaedic implants.

Supervisor: Professor Marta Roldo

This project explores the synthesis, characterisation and incorporation of nanosized Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), specifically zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8), into different materials used in bone regeneration, eg. hydrogels, electrospun fibres, etc. The aim is to enhance the composite materials' properties, including their ability to support bone integration, reduce toxicity, improve mechanical performance, and provide controlled antimicrobial drug release. By introducing ZIF-8 and its magnesium-doped variants, the study seeks to overcome current limitations of biomaterials for bone regeneration, advancing the field of bone tissue engineering.

Supervisor: Dr Robbie Baldock

This project aims to elucidate the molecular mechanisms that maintain mitochondrial genome stability, a critical factor in cellular energy production and human health. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is particularly susceptible to damage due to its proximity to reactive oxygen species. To systematically investigate this, we will integrate a suite of high-throughput mitochondrial function assays coupled with molecular analyses. The project aims to identify key regulatory pathways involved in mtDNA maintenance. Central to this effort is the application of state-of-the-art sequencing technologies, enabling comprehensive mapping of mtDNA mutations, deletions, and single nucleotide polymorphisms with unprecedented resolution. By combining functional, molecular, and genomic approaches, this project seeks to advance our understanding of mitochondrial genome dynamics and identify novel targets for therapeutic intervention in mitochondrial diseases.

Supervisor: Dr Roger Draheim

This MRes project will alter how antibiotics get into Gram-negative bacteria. The applicant will target the bacterial EnvZ receptor, which modulates expression of porins that allow certain classes of antibiotics to pass to the cell interior. In short, we desire to “turn on” this EnvZ receptor to facilitate antibiotic influx into bacterial cells. At the discretion of the applicant, this project has both a wet-lab and a computational component. The wet-lab component will involve growing and storing E. coli cells, molecular biological techniques including DNA manipulation and sequencing, immunoblotting and subsequent image quantification. The computational component will involve employing AlphaFold3 and atomistic molecular dynamic simulations with CHARMM-GUI, VMD and NAMD. These simulations will be analysed with MDAnalysis and JupyterLab. Comparison between these wet-lab and computational results will demonstrate how the EnvZ receptor “turns on” and result in a novel way to get antibiotics into multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria.

Supervisor: Dr Roja Hadianamrei

Cancer is one of leading causes of death in the world. The current cancer treatment strategies often lack selectivity for cancer cells leading to side effects that significantly reduce the patient’s quality of life and can lead to discontinuation of therapy. The more selective therapies such as monoclonal antibodies are highly expensive thus limiting their applications to the high-income nations. Hence, developing more efficient anticancer treatments with minimal damage to the healthy tissues at lower costs is among the global health priorities. Anticancer peptides have emerged as a new class of anticancer therapies with diverse structures and various efficacies.

This project aims to develop a new library of highly efficient and selective anticancer peptides, assess their anticancer activity and cell selectivity in different cell lines and study their structure-activity relationship (SAR). The project involves using various techniques including HPLC, FTIR, CD spectroscopy, UV-VIS spectroscopy, human cell culture and fluorescent microscopy.

Supervisor: Dr Susanne Dietrich

Conjoined twinning is a rare pathology, but frequencies seem to increase with artificial reproduction techniques and certain medication. In conjoined twins, organs become displaced or may degenerate as the twins intact. How this happens is unclear. We recently showed that in the chicken embryo, typically twins begin to develop normally, and start to interact after some 28 hours. To explore this twin interaction, twinning will be induced in early-stage embryos. Thereafter, tissue movements will be traced using vital dyes, apoptosis will be monitored, and the dynamics of marker gene expression, specifically the expression of regulatory genes and signalling molecules, will be analysed with in situ hybridisation and antibody staining techniques.

Supervisor: Dr Susanne Dietrich

In heart failure, cardiomyocytes erroneously express skeletal muscle genes and partly adopt a skeletal muscle phenotype. We showed that in early embryonic development, there is a transition phase when a set of heart-competent cells switch to the skeletal muscle programme to form the muscles of the neck and face. It is tempting to speculate that in both cases, cells may go through the same transition process, but this has not been investigated yet. Bioinformatic analyses suggested that the transition may be controlled by heart and head skeletal muscle genes suppressing each other, with skeletal muscle genes eventually having the upper hand. The project will test the idea of a mutual suppression of cardiac-head skeletal muscle regulators by misexpressing candidate regulatory genes in the chicken embryo.

Supervisor: Dr Susanne Dietrich

Repair cells introduced into an infarcted heart beat out-of-tune, causing dangerous arrhythmias. During heart development, however, cells are recruited from the second heart field (SHF) to enlarge the primitive heart, and these cells naturally integrate and beat in-tune. Two projects are available to investigate (a) the intrinsic properties of the recruited cells as well as (b) the properties of the recruiting environment, with the view to eventually apply this knowledge to therapy. We recently carried out RNAseq screens and, excitingly, we identified novel potential SHF regulatory genes. The work will encompass the characterisation of these genes and the manipulation of cardiogenic tissues in vitro and in the chicken embryo in vivo.

Supervisor: Dr Susanne Dietrich

The head mesoderm delivers the heart, skeletal muscles of the face, the skull vault and the cranial vasculature. This includes the vasculature of the brain, which is essential for neural development as well as brain function and maintenance. Sprouting of blood vessels into the brain has been studied extensively. Yet how the precursor cells for the brain vasculature develop, i.e. how head mesodermal cells decide to become angioblasts and accumulate around the brain, is unknown. This project will use novel transgenic chicken lines to trace the cranial angioblasts. Moreover, potential regulators, signalling molecules and inhibitors will be applied and their effect on vascular cells monitored. The project is a basic sciences project and will deliver exciting novel insight. 

Supervisor: Dr Chris Mills

Whole body musculoskeletal (MSK) models fail to account for the effects of a moving female breast mass, therefore may misrepresent the overall kinematics and calculated loads within female participants. Further understanding of in vivo soft tissue behaviour combined with computer modelling techniques will enable improved assessment of torso loading of women in the workplace, prediction of changes in muscular demand following breast augmentation or reduction surgery, and improved apparel design for health, exercise and well-being. This project will include collection of breast biomechanics data to inform and develop a female specific musculoskeletal model to understand how soft tissue motion effects internal loading.

Supervisor: Ed Morrison

Implicit association tests (IATs) have long been used in psychology to measure people's unconscious biases and associations, including biases against age, sex, race and so on, albeit controversially. But which of these biases is stronger than the other? This project will create modified IATs to quantitatively answer this question by pitting stimuli against each other that belong to multiple categories simultaneously.

Supervisor: Ed Morrison

Offence is one reason for curbs to free speech, and for self-censorship. However, there are grey areas as to what constitutes "offensive". This project would empirically explore what people find offensive with examples ranging from jokes to philosophical theories to artworks. People's own judgements will be compared against what they think others' judgements will be to see if they are accurate, or if they over or underestimate offence. A further idea is to experimentally test how adding humour changes people's perceptions of offensive statements.

Supervisor: Dr Kagari Shibazaki

This observational study should explore how boys and girls develop different skills through playing with the same toys. Stereotypical attitudes influence our behaviours, interests, and competencies and by the age of three, children already possess a range of well-established, and sophisticated stereotypical beliefs which exert a significant influence over what and how children choose to play. These activities have a major impact on the development of specific skills; a factor that can subsequently impact on the decisions children make, and the opportunities they have in later life. Within the nursery environment, young boys and girls may well be given equal opportunities, access, and equal encouragement to play with the same toys, but exactly how they play, and therefore the skills they develop through that play are very different. This ultimately impacts on their overall development, and  the decisions they are able to make in their adult life.

Supervisor: Professor Leanne Proops

The extent to which animals possess an awareness of death has deep philosophical relevance and clear implications for the study of animal cognition and the ethical treatment of animals. Termed “comparative thanatology”, this growing field of animal cognition research is important but the topic remains difficult to study scientifically and ethically. This project provides the opportunity to study the behaviours of domestic species following the loss of a social partner using novel and ethical methods.

Supervisor: Professor Leanne Proops

One of the defining features of the human species is our complex language, and researchers have proposed several hypotheses as to how this unique feature could have evolved. One of the leading theories is that the evolution of complex and tolerant societies created an evolutionary driver for more complex communication. This hypothesis has been robustly tested, and broadly supported, by comparisons of primate species. This project explores the link between social organisation and communication in Equidae (horses and donkeys) – a closed related family of species that vary systematically in their degree of sociality and social tolerance.

Supervisor: Dr Mark Turner

This research project explores how various social media trends may impact on users’ psychological well-being and body image. Focusing on trends such as fitness inspiration, the use of beauty filters, or “body positivity” interventions, the research may assess short- and long-term effects of social media use on mental health and appearance satisfaction in different groups. Using mixed-methods approaches, including surveys, experimental exposure, and interviews, the research aims to improve our understanding of the types of content that are most harmful or beneficial, and/or identify specific activities which may have protective value for body image. The research findings aim to inform strategies for healthier social media use and guide platform policies or public health interventions.

Supervisor: Dr Renan Saraiva

This MRes project investigates key issues surrounding the reliability and accuracy of eyewitness testimony in the criminal justice system. Eyewitness accounts often play a crucial role in investigations and court proceedings, yet decades of psychological research have highlighted their susceptibility to various distortions. This study explores factors such as memory decay, suggestibility, stress, and the influence of post-event information on eyewitness recall and identification accuracy. Special attention is given to how system variables (e.g., police procedures) and estimator variables (e.g., witness age, attention, or race) impact testimony credibility. The project employs a combination of experimental and literature-based methods to critically evaluate these influences and their legal implications. By identifying the psychological mechanisms that contribute to eyewitness error, this research aims to inform best practices for law enforcement and contribute to the development of more reliable, evidence-based procedures for gathering and assessing eyewitness evidence in legal contexts.

Supervisor: Dr Stefana Juncu

Eyewitness identifications are a key component of many criminal investigations, but decades of research have shown they can be unreliable and prone to error. This project explores how identification decisions are made and how accuracy can be improved through better measurement and procedure design. Drawing on cognitive and applied psychology, the project will examine factors such as the structure of line-ups, instructions given to witnesses, and the confidence-accuracy relationship. We will also explore novel ways to assess the quality of identification decisions, including confidence measures, decision times, and alternative response formats. Students will have the opportunity to design and run experiments, analyse behavioural data, and contribute to evidence-based recommendations for improving police identification procedures. 

Supervisor: Dr Stefana Juncu

Eyewitness testimony plays a critical role in criminal investigations, yet it is often vulnerable to error. This project uses eye-tracking to examine the cognitive processes underlying eyewitness memory, with a focus on both the retrieval stage (e.g. during interviews) and recognition stage (e.g. during line-ups or identification tasks). Eye-tracking offers a window into attention and memory retrieval by revealing what witnesses attend to, how they search for information, and what guides their decision-making. We will investigate how different interview techniques influence recall accuracy, and how visual search strategies affect identification performance. By analysing gaze patterns, we aim to uncover when and why errors occur, and what factors contribute to accurate memory reporting. This project draws on insights from cognitive and applied psychology, offering students hands-on experience with experimental design and behavioural analysis.

Supervisor: Dr Stefana Juncu

In the UK, someone is recorded missing every two minutes, totalling over 300,000 cases a year—most involving children (NCA, 2023). This project aims to improve the effectiveness of public missing persons appeals, drawing on insights from cognitive and applied psychology. Missing persons appeals function as a real-world prospective person memory (PPM) task, yet research shows PPM performance is often poor. Experimental findings suggest appeal success can be enhanced by including multiple photographs, spatial and temporal context, and richer descriptive information. Using innovative eye-tracking methods, this project will examine how people attend to and process appeal information, both when encoding the appeal and when later searching for the person. Understanding how attention and memory operate in these tasks will help design appeals that increase the likelihood of recognition and reporting. Students will explore behavioural and attentional factors shaping real-world identifications, with practical implications for police and public alert systems.

Supervisor: Dr Carolina Goncalves

Every year, over 100,000 elective total knee replacement surgeries are performed in the UK. People going through elective knee replacement surgery have an average length of stay in hospital of 3 days, which means they may be discharged at the very early stages of the rehabilitation process. Intermediate stay, easing the transition between hospital and home is becoming popular, particularly in the private sector. The current project, led by Mr Jonathan Bell and Dr Carolina Goncalves, is a qualitative project aiming to explore the experiences of those going through elective knee replacement, and their needs when it comes to transition from hospital to home to complete their rehabilitation.

Supervisor: Dr Mitch Lomax

Projects seeking to examine the pulmonary limitations and methods to ameliorate them during swimming exercise will be particularly welcomed, although other swimming related physiology projects will also be considered. A range of project areas can be undertaken including:  breathing constraints experienced during all swimming strokes and or modes of swimming; the effects of respiratory muscle training on swimming performance and its components; and the effects of respiratory muscle warm-ups on swimming performance and its components. Such topics can be examined from a physiological perspective only or a combined physiological and biomechanical approach.

Supervisor: Dr Sarthak Mondal

This research project explores the economic challenges faced by English Football League (EFL) clubs in light of the proposed implementation of the Football Governance Bill. The Bill introduces an Independent Football Regulator tasked with enhancing financial sustainability, improving governance standards and promoting fan engagement. While designed to prevent financial mismanagement and club collapses as seen with Bury FC and Derby County, the new regulatory framework imposes additional compliance costs and administrative burdens on lower-tier clubs with already fragile finances. The study will assess how regulatory requirements, such as licensing, financial reporting and fan consultation, may affect EFL clubs compared to their Premier League counterparts. It will also evaluate the implications of revenue redistribution mechanisms and the potential impact on club investment and competitiveness. This project aims to provide evidence-based insights into whether the Bill promotes long-term financial stability or exacerbates existing inequalities within the football pyramid.