PhD Projects to make the world a better place

Are you interested in parasites moving from the Amazon Rainforest? Or predicting the next pandemic? Read more here.

Modified

September 14, 2026

New projects will be announced soon: watch this space!

If you are interested in our research and are considering PhD with us, via another funding stream in your country, or as a self-funded student, please get in touch.

The projects below will give you an idea for the work that we do. Some of these may be offered in October 2026 (but we are waiting for funding confirmation). If you are interested in any of these projects, please watch this space and/or get in touch with us to discuss your interests.

Read more about these three PhD projects below:

Predicting the next pandemic by enhancing viral surveillance

  • Focus: Early risk prediction from sequence data
  • Methods: phylogenetics, protein structure modeling, machine learning, high-throughput assays
  • Outputs: open-source surveillance pipelines and actionable dashboards
  • Training: bioinformatics, protein modeling, experimental validation
  • Careers: academia, public health, biotech/pharma

Funding Notes

  • This project is funded by the BBSRC YBDTP. Appointed candidates will be fully-funded for 4 years.

  • The funding includes: tax-free annual UKRI stipend (estimated to be £21,383 for the 2026/27 academic year), tuition fees and research consumables.

Uncovering natural and anthropic factors that affect the eco-epidemiology of Leishmania pathogens transmission in the Amazon

Witness evolution as Amazon parasites adapt to urban life. This PhD investigates how Leishmania parasites and their sand fly vectors adapt to urbanization in the Amazon. We have identified a newly evolved parasite population near Manaus that emerged within the past few centuries. You’ll combine genomics and bioinformatics with fieldwork to uncover how disease transmission responds to environmental change.

  • Focus: Eco-epidemiology of urbanizing leishmaniasis
  • Methods: spatial epidemiology, evolutionary genomics, DNA barcoding, microbiome analysis
  • Fieldwork: Amazon rainforest; 1–3 months at Fiocruz (Brazil)
  • Impact: evidence to inform control strategies for a disease affecting ~30,000 Brazilians annually
  • Training: population genomics, bioinformatics, GIS, field methods, science communication

Funding Notes

  • NERC ACCE+ DLA programme starts from September 2026.
  • UKRI provide the following funding for 3.5 years:
    • Stipend (2025/26 UKRI rate £20,780)
    • Tuition Fees at UK fee rate (2025/26 UKRI rate £5,006)
    • Research support and training grant (RTSG).

Genomic Epidemiology, Host Immunopathology, and Rapid Diagnostics of Epidemic Sporothrix brasiliensis in Brazil

Project Overview

Subcutaneous sporotrichosis, caused by the aggressive fungus Sporothrix brasiliensis and transmitted primarily by domestic cats, is a rapidly escalating epidemic across South America. At our partner institution, the Alfredo da Matta Hospital Foundation (FUAM) in Manaus, Brazil, annual cases surged from just 1 in 2019 to over 460 in 2025.

In addition to standard skin lesions, severe atypical manifestations—including life-threatening meningeal (70% mortality), osteoarticular, and pulmonary infections—are increasingly common. Standard treatments require 3–12 months of antifungal therapy, but rising drug resistance and treatment side effects complicate care. Because conventional diagnosis relies on slow fungal cultures, there is an urgent need for rapid point-of-care diagnostics, molecular tracking of fungal spread, and immune profiling to understand why severe disease occurs.

Key Highlights
  • Location & Impact: Manaus, Brazil & UK-based research team
  • Core Approaches: Data science, molecular biology, fungal genomics, host immunology
  • Global Health Alignment: Neglected tropical diseases, epidemic preparedness, diagnostic translation, and quantitative GWAS

What You Will Do

Working closely with clinical and scientific staff at FUAM, this PhD project integrates epidemiology, diagnostics, and multi-omics across four main objectives:

  1. National Epidemiological Mapping: Mine Brazil’s national surveillance microdata (SINAN/DATASUS) using R tools to map spatial-temporal trends, risk factors, and transmission dynamics.
  2. Diagnostic Innovation: Develop and test a rapid, field-deployable Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) DNA assay to enable fast species identification without waiting weeks for cultures.
  3. Genomic Epidemiology & GWAS: Evaluate 300 clinical cases, sequence 200 Sporothrix brasiliensis genomes, and apply established Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) pipelines to link fungal genetics with drug resistance, lineage dispersal, and clinical severity.
  4. Host Immunopathology: Perform high-multiplex immune profiling on patient tissue and blood samples (focusing on outlier immune responses) to uncover the cellular mechanisms driving severe outcomes.

Skills & Experience You Will Gain

This multi-disciplinary project offers comprehensive training at the interface of computational biology, bench science, and practical public health:

  • Bioinformatics & Quantitative Biology: R programming, spatial epidemiological modeling, next-generation sequencing analysis, and GWAS frameworks.
  • Molecular & Translational Diagnostics: Design, optimization, and field-validation of point-of-care nucleic acid tests (LAMP).
  • Immunology & Multiplex Assays: Deep profiling of human immune signatures in clinical specimens.
  • International Collaboration: Working directly with frontline clinicians and epidemiologists in endemic regions.

Who Should Apply

We are looking for enthusiastic candidates with a background in biological sciences, genetics, bioinformatics, immunology, or public health. If you are passionate about combining computational tools and molecular biology to tackle an ongoing fungal epidemic, we encourage you to apply!

MAGIC Crops: Genomics to breed high yielding, resilient and nutritious amaranth

Improve a climate-resilient crop with genomics and gene editing. Amaranths are a drought-tolerant, nutrient-rich crop crucial for smallholder farmers in Africa and an emerging high-value vertical-farm crop in the UK. You’ll analyze a new pangenome and a MAGIC population to map yield, flowering time, and nutritional traits, then validate candidate genes.

  • Focus: Trait discovery and improvement in amaranth
  • Data sets: high-quality pangenome and MAGIC population
  • Methods: quantitative genetics, GWAS/QTL mapping, gene editing
  • Experiments: field trials in South Africa; vertical-farm experiments in York
  • Impact: tools and varieties for climate-resilient, nutritious crops
  • Training: genomics, statistics, molecular biology

Funding Notes

  • This project is funded by the BBSRC YBDTP. Appointed candidates will be fully-funded for 4 years.

  • The funding includes: tax-free annual UKRI stipend (estimated to be £21,383 for the 2026/27 academic year), tuition fees and research consumables.