PhD Opportunities
- If you have already secured personal funding, and would like to apply for a PhD at the William Harvey Research Institute, please see the research areas where we are able to offer projects.
- Currently available PhD projects within the William Harvey Research Institute are also listed below.
- Once you have identified an area of research or specific PhD project that interests you please contact the listed supervisor to discuss further.
- If you wish to discuss PhD projects and research opportunities further please contact Dr Dianne Cooper (Director of Graduate Studies).
- Once you have identified a suitable project and supervisor please submit an online application where you should select the relevant William Harvey Research Institute course.
Current PhD projects
| Supervisor name | Project title/Research area |
|---|---|
| Dr Aisah Aubdool | Investigating the role of natriuretic peptides in thoracic and abdominal aortic aneurysms. |
| Dr Federica Begalli | Our group investigates the molecular mechanisms driving pituitary tumours in general and with a particular focus on non-functioning gonadotroph tumours, which lack reliable biomarkers and targeted treatment options. By dissecting the underlying molecular pathways, we seek to identify clinically relevant biomarkers and uncover novel therapeutic targets, ultimately contributing to improved diagnosis, stratification, and treatment strategies for patients. |
| Dr Christopher Bell | Computational and Integrative Epigenomic Analyses in Ageing-related Diseases. |
| Prof Federica Marelli-Berg | The adaptive immune response in inflammatory cardiomyopathies/Metabolic regulation of T cell trafficking/Metabolic mechanisms of endothelial dysfunction. |
| Dr Pilar Cacheiro | We develop new computational approaches to identify novel genes associated with rare Mendelian disorders and to investigate the mechanisms that drive early human development, with a particular focus on how genetic variation can lead to prenatal death. Our work involves the analysis of large-scale genomic cohorts, including those from Genomics England and Genes & Health. |
| Prof Michelangelo Campanella | Precision Mitochondrial Medicine: Uncovering Disease Mechanisms for Targeted Pharmacological Intervention. |
| Dr Livia Carvalho | PhD research projects involving patients with common and severe mental illness and investigating stress-related biological pathways such as inflammation and hormones that leads to worse physical and mental health outcomes. |
| Prof Li Chan | Deciphering mechanisms and therapeutic innovations in paediatric obesity and adrenal diseases. |
| Dr Jianmin Chen | Mechanisms and Therapeutic Innovations for Cardiomyopathy in Rheumatoid Arthritis. |
| Dr Dianne Cooper | The role of the vascular endothelium in chronic inflammation: understanding mechanisms and identifying new therapeutic targets. |
| Dr Gabor Czibik | Amino acid metabolism in cardiovascular disease. |
| Prof Jesmond Dalli | Our research seeks to uncover the molecular and cellular mechanisms that program immune resilience and terminate inflammation, driving the development of innovative therapies that restore tissue homeostasis while preserving robust host defence. |
| Prof Panos Deloukas | Genomics of Coronary Artery Disease and Tools for Cardiovascular Disease Prediction. |
| Prof Philip Eaton | Oxidant signalling in the cardiovascular system – from basic mechanisms to new therapies. |
| Prof Leonardo Guasti | We study the fundamental biology of the adrenal gland, focusing on the mechanisms of adrenal cortex physiology, self-renewal, and remodelling, and how their dysregulation drives adrenal disease. To address these questions, we are developing patient-derived normal and disease organoids and reprogrammed cells as innovative models to capture adrenal physiology and pathology. These platforms complement transgenic animal models and enable mechanistic studies of adrenal growth and tumorigenesis in a controlled, human-relevant context. |
| Dr Sasha Howard | Our group's focus is on disorders of human puberty and reproduction, with work including genomic investigation of human cohorts, understanding molecular mechanisms of disease and optimising lifelong outcomes by improving diagnosis and treatment for patients with pubertal conditions. |
| Dr Dan Jones | Innovative strategies to improve outcomes for patients with coronary artery disease with a specific focus on translational therapies and adjunctive techniques (i.e CTCA). |
| Dr Magdalena Kaneva | Innovative approaches to cartilage repair in osteoarthritis therapies. |
| Prof Marta Korbonits | Our group is studying the genetic aspects of endocrine tumours in general and specifically the genetic contribution and molecular mechanism of pituitary adenomas/pituitary neuroendocrine tumours. |
| Prof Nikolas Lemos | Cameron Forensic Medical Sciences provides supervision for doctoral students whose research seeks to address key questions within forensic medical sciences, including legal and ethical issues, clinical forensic medicine, forensic pathology, forensic human identification and forensic/analytical toxicology. |
| Prof Eirini Marouli | AI-Powered biomedical innovation for health and disease. |
| Dr Carles Gaston-Massuet | In my lab we are interested in understanding the molecular switches that determine how stem cells drive early tumorigenesis in paediatric tumours. Project: " Understanding Wnt/b-catenin pathway in stem cell-driven hypothalamic pituitary tumours” |
| Prof Louise Metherell | Her research is focused on the genetics of endocrine disease, particularly disorders of adrenal insufficiency, with current projects investigating the causal genes and mechanisms underlying it.” |
| Dr Tom Nightingale | The role of endothelial intracellular trafficking in controlling inflammation and haemostasis. |
| Dr Rathi Prasad | Our group investigates disrupted adrenal homeostasis associated with adrenal insufficiency and adrenal cancers, with discovery of novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets in adrenal cancer.
Project: Influencing sphingolipid metabolism - a novel therapeutic strategy for adrenal cancer. |
| Dr Claudio Raimondi | My team investigates the fundamental mechanisms that regulate the function of endothelial cells, which line the lumen of blood vessels and are key drivers of vascular health. As endothelial cell dysfunction initiates and accelerates cardiovascular disease, our research aims to understand how to preserve endothelial integrity and develop new therapeutic strategies. |
| Dr Krishnaraj Rathod | Sex differences in cardiovascular disease and the investigation of inorganic nitrate in cardiovascular disease ask well as phase II/III randomised controlled trials. |
| Dr Karine Rizzoti | We are interested in understanding why and how neonate pituitary stem cells almost exclusively give rise to gonadotrophs, the cells regulating puberty and reproduction.
Project: “Mechanisms of neonate pituitary stem cells gonadotroph fate acquisition”. |
| Dr Vahitha Abdul Salam | Cardiovascular Effects of Environmental Microplastics; Drug Discovery by Targeting the Inflammatory Signatures in Vascular Disease; Developing Proteomics-based Biomarkers in Cardiovascular Diseases; Environment and Health – Linking Pollution to Health Outcomes. |
| Prof Shafaq Sikandar | 1. Defining a neuroimmune basis for pain sensitivity in health and disease, and 2. Investigating the role of the Duffy gene in prostate cancer and pain. |
| Prof Damian Smedley | Computational biology approaches to improving multiomics-driven diagnosis of rare genetic disease and disease-gene association discovery. |
| Dr Egle Solito | The Peripheral System’s Impact on the Blood–Brain Barrier and Brain Immunity: Deciphering Pathways and Mechanisms for Early Diagnosis and Control of Dementia. |
| Prof Helen Storr | Our research aims to increase the understanding of the molecular genetic basis underlying childhood growth failure and enhance the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of children with growth disorders. |
| Dr Mani Subramanian | Project: Targeting Inflammatory Pathways: Discovery of Novel Pharmacological Modulators for Cardiovascular Disease. |
| Prof Ken Suzuki | Reparative macrophages in myocardial repair; investigation of their role and therapeutic application. |
| Dr Cristina Pérez-Ternero | Cardiovascular health in mouse models of Down syndrome" and "Links between metabolic dysfunction and cardiovascular disease. |
| Professor Rajesh Thakker | Genetics and epigenetic mechanisms of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours. |