Projects for 2027

Applications are now open for 2027 entry, please see full list of projects below.

You can apply here for projects listed below or follow the links to the FindaPhD website

Leeds Beckett University

Click on the project title to view the full description on the FindAPhD website.

Project	Primary Supervisor
Oral dysbiosis and S. aureus: understanding how change in the oral microbiome drive infection risk	Dr Arya Gupta
Single-Molecule Fluorescence Detection of Early-Stage Dementia Biomarkers	Dr Tara Sabir
Uncovering molecular switches that drive chronic Staphylococcus aureus infection in Type 2 Diabetes	Dr Jess Haigh
Understanding how Ageing and Viral Infection co-operate to cause Endothelial Dysfunction	Dr Jaskaren Kohli

Sheffield Hallam University

Click on the project title to view the full description on the FindAPhD website.

Project	Primary Supervisor

Teeside University

Click on the project title to view the full description on the FindAPhD website.

Project	Primary Supervisor

University of Bradford

Click on the project title to view the full description on the FindAPhD website.

Project	Primary Supervisor
Quantifying and Correcting the Effects of Ocular Ageing on Optical Coherence Tomography	Dr Jonathan Denniss
Vascular fingerprinting: defining vascular cell provenance from molecular and cellular biology	Kirsten Riches-Suman
Understanding ESCRT-Mediated Proteostasis pathways for Neurodegenerative Disease Intervention	Sriharsha Kantamneni
AI-driven structural and chemical exploration of poorly characterised kinases	Dr Vibhu Jha
Deciphering the biological role of ESCRT complex proteins in neuronal senescence induced by air pollutants.	Dr Jacob Elies
OSPHORA: next-generation 2D nanomaterials for understanding bone crosstalk and skeletal repair	Dr Amalia Ruiz Estrada
A multi-cell in vitro skin tissue model to understand acne progression and scarring in different ethnicities	Dr Karthic Swaminathan
Decoding Resilience: The Hedgehog- Interferon Signalling Axis in Stem Cell Survival	Dr Sneha Swaroop
Development of novel Adhirons-based conjugates for use in life science technologies	Dr Vibhu Jha

University of Huddersfield

Click on the project title to view the full description on the FindAPhD website.

Project	Primary Supervisor

University of Hull

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Project	Primary Supervisor
Multi-Omic Investigation of Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Health and Disease	Dr Barbara Guinn
Mating systems, coevolution and resistance evolution	Prof. Rob Knell

University of Leeds

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Project	Primary Supervisor
Decoding RNA Translation from Direct-FRAC-Seq Data with AI-Enhanced Graphical Models	Dr Luisa Cutillo
Enhancing the antibacterial efficacy of biffamycin, a novel glycotetrapeptide antibiotic	Dr Ryan Seipke
The role of microbiome in crustacean ecology and health	Dr Josie South
Bone as a mechanoresponsive material: a density-stratified biocompatible 3D-printed model system for validating stress-driven remodelling predictions at the implant interface	Dr Flavia Peres Rodrigues
Activating Enzymes with Adhirons	Dr Glyn Hemsworth
Membrane lipid remodelling as a tuneable regulator of AKT1 signalling: from molecular simulation to dietary biomarkers	Dr James Thorne
Learning-induced tuning of olfactory circuits	Dr Jamie Johnston
Structure-guided discovery of selective modulators of brain and cancer-associated potassium channels	Dr Jonathan D. Lippiat
How plants repair DNA double-strand breaks: From molecular mechanisms to genome engineering	Dr Takashi Ochi
The biomechanics and neural control of bird flight in turbulence	Dr Graham Askew
Unravelling the mechanisms of cardiac myosin function in health and disease	Dr Charlie Scarff
From protein dynamics to cell engineering: fine-tuning stress responses for antibody production	Dr Anastasia Zhuravleva
Novel immune mechanisms of cooling-induced tissue damage	Dr Viktor Lukacs
Deconvoluting the sequence determinants for outer membrane protein folding, stability and function	Prof. David Brockwell
Child and adolescent brain health and the socioexposome	Prof. Mark Mon-Williams
Chikungunya Virus Defective Viral Genomes: Unravelling mechanisms of formation, immune modulation and effect on viral pathogenesis	Dr Andrew Tuplin
From Queen Signals to Pesticide Sensitivity: How Pheromones Reprogramme Honeybee Physiology and Response to Stress	Dr Elizabeth Duncan
It’s getting hot in here – how heatwaves impact health and ageing	Prof. Amanda Bretman
Seeing molecules in action: optical tweezers for understanding extracellular matrix polysaccharides	Prof. Ralf Richter
Nanopore profiling of specialised ribosomes	Prof. Paolo Actis
AI-Driven Protein Design for Studying Cell Signalling and Chromatin	Prof. Elton Zeqiraj
Dissecting the mechanisms by which changes in ribosome composition drive translation of non-canonical regions	Prof. Julie Aspden
Biomechanics and navigation in bees: Integrating energetics and kinematics in changing environments	Dr Simon Walker
Understanding the neuro-immune connection in the breast tissue ecosystem	Chiarra Gorrini
Biophysics of photosynthesis and solar energy capture explored with advanced methods in nanoscience, electrophoresis and fluorescence microscopy	Dr Peter Adams
Cardiovascular ion channels as regulators of pericyte signalling and function	Prof. Robin Bon
Rules of life in the dense phase: how composition controls molecular dynamics in biomolecular condensates	Dr Joel A. Crossley
Integrative mechanisms of fatigue dynamics and exercise intolerance	Dr Al Benson
Enabling the in vivo study of human microglia/ human neuron interactions: a new human-mouse chimeric model for neurological disease	Dr Marine Krzisch
In situ structural basis of cell-cell communication mediated by Arc, an endogenous RNA-containing virus-like capsid	Dr Rene Frank
Decoding SUMO-Dependent Control of Angiogenic Signalling	Dr Alexander Garvin
Optimising Biochar for microbial electrochemical applications using machine learning approaches	Dr Daya Pandey
Engineering Superselective Molecular Probes for Neuronal Glycans	Prof. Bruce Turnbull
Establishing Advanced Gene Editing in Legume Crops	Dr Natasha Yelina
Understanding the Origins of Spectral Shift Signals Across Diverse Protein Interaction Systems	Prof. Michael Webb
Modelling the Mouth: Enamel Remineralisation Strategies for Oral Health	Dr Helen Chappell
Dual-Specific Integrin Targeting for Selective Cancer Cell Recognition and Therapeutic Signalling Modulation	Prof. Yuan Guo
Plant Protein–Dietary Fibre Composites: How Amaranth Cell-Wall Architecture Controls Protein Digestion and Nutritional Functionality	Prof. Gleb Yakubov
Decoding protein aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases using advanced mass spectrometry methods	Dr Antonio Calabrese
In situ cryo-electron tomography to map plant structural responses to chemical inhibitors	Prof. Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso

University of Sheffield

Click on the project title to view the full description on the FindAPhD website.

Project	Primary Supervisor

University of York

Click on the project title to view the full description on the FindAPhD website.

Project	Primary Supervisor
Copy, Paste, Evolve: Unlocking the Secrets of Plant Chemical Diversity	Benjamin Lichman
Cracking the Ralstonia biofilm: discovering enzymes to protect crops from bacterial wilt	Federico Sabbadin
Unravelling mechanisms regulating ‘macrophaging’ to characterise macrophage – mediated immune regulation during aging.	Ioannis Kourtzelis
Decoding photoperiodic flowering in sugar beet	Seth J. Davis
Predicting the next pandemic by enhancing viral surveillance	Daniel Jeffares
The sweet science of gum disease: chemical biology approaches to unmask the sugar coat of a periodontal disease pathogen	Martin Fascione
MAGIC Crops: From genomic discovery to climate resilience, developing nutritious amaranth for the UK	Katherine Denby
Splicing up the fire: Innate immune control of infection by inflammatory caspases	Dave Boucher
Decode the Secret Language of Mistletoe	Pallavi Singh
Catalytic Promiscuity of Unspecific Peroxygenases	Gideon Grogan
Breaking barriers: discovery of cell wall-degrading enzymes to study and fight Staphylococcus aureus infections	Lianne Willems
Stress, Inflammation, and Endometriosis: Exploring the Role of the Glucocorticoid Receptor in the Endometrium for Lifelong Reproductive Health	Andrew N Holding
Decoding TDP-43 self-assembly in RNA regulation and neurodegeneration	Han-Jou Chen
Decoding Caspase?14’s Role in Human Epidermal Homeostasis and Wound healing	Kim Samirah Robinson
How do human blood stem cells adapt to life outside the body? Imaging cellular composition to design better culture systems	William Grey
Imaging the ionic landscape of a living cell: how Chlamydomonas coordinates photosynthesis, carbon fixation and respiration	Jamie Blaza
Engineering Plant Metal Transport Systems for Soil Remediation and Nickel Recovery	Liz Rylott
In or out? How does the subcellular localisation of TLK2 regulate neuronal development?	Gareth Evans
Reversing stem cell ageing for next generation gene therapy applications to prevent blood cancers.	David Kent
Understanding a capsid-based paradigm in neuronal intercellular signalling	Sangeeta Chawla
Finding each blood stem cell in its neighbourhood: machine learning to map the bone marrow niche from multiplexed imaging and single-cell proteomics	William Grey
The Missing Receptors: How the Leishmania Kinome Senses Environmental Cues	Nicola Baker
Do age-related changes in host glycans alter the gut microbiota in ways that impact human health?	Alan Cartmell
Deciphering Streptomyces Telomere Replication to Unlock Cryptic Biosynthetic Gene Clusters	Purba Mukherjee
Obstacles to DNA replication: what happens when replisomes and proteins collide?	Michelle Hawkins
Architects of Resistance: How Viruses and their Descendants Shape Bacterial Evolution	Paul Fogg
New CCL5 prosthesis and photo-crosslinking approach for functional analysis of low density CCR5.	Nathalie Signoret
Unlocking Secrets of the Genome: How Does Sodium Regulate Eukaryotic DNA Replication?	Will Brackenbury
Engineering the glycosylation of extracellular vesicles to maximize therapeutic functions	Daniel Ungar
Overriding double protection: characterisation of novel glycan liberating enzymes in the human gut microbiome	Gavin Hugh Thomas
How do African trypanosomes evade complement attack?	Alex Cook
Accelerating protein library screening via innovative sensor arrays	Michael Plevin
Unlocking the Power of Microbial Energy Engines: Fundamental Insights for the Bioeconomy	Alison Parkin
Novel chemical reactions for protein isotope labelling	Chris Spicer
Engineering Next-Generation Gene Drives to Fight Mosquito-Borne Diseases	Joshua Ang
Overcoming enzymatic inhibition in anaerobic digestion of cereal straw to produce biomethane fuel	Matthew Reilly
Anaerobic fermentation of Agave Residues into Sustainable Organic Acid Industrial Feedstocks	Matthew Reilly
Building synthetic microbial communities using AI and engineering biology	James Chong
Exploring viral dark matter: discovering how viruses assemble and infect cells	Fred Antson
Evolutionary responses of aphid species to changes in insecticide usage	Kanchon Dasmahapatra

Find more information about funding and eligibility on How to apply.