LSI PhD Programme

A thriving community of over 60 PhD students
An interdisciplinary training programme tailored to the individual student
Fully funded places including personal stipend and training budget
The opportunity to formulate your own project
A supervisory team from different disciplines
A modern, inclusive environment that is passionately committed to your development.
Leading-edge approaches including genome editing, advanced imaging, stem cell biology, mathematical modelling, neuroscience, single-cell/molecule technologies

Who we’re looking for

Modern scientific innovation involves the integration of diverse disciplines and the bridging of pure and application-oriented research. This requires a new generation of scientists who are trained to think and experiment beyond traditional boundaries.

We wish to recruit the best and most imaginative students from across the full range of disciplines working within LSI – Biologists, Physicists, Mathematicians, Computational Scientists and Engineers using cutting-edge technologies.

Your PhD project

Below you find interdisciplinary PhD projects for the 2023/24 intake. For further information about the projects please contact the supervisors

The Roadmap of Human Pluripotency; Supervisors: Austin Smith and Ge Guo
Development of a preventative therapy for Neurofibromatosis type 1 tumours; Supervisors: Benjamin Housden, Kirsty Wan, and Steve West
Investigating eukaryotic intracellular parasites using electron cryo-tomography; Supervisors: Bertram Daum and Bryony Williams
Understanding the mechanisms of pathogen invasion of host cells using a cross-disciplinary approach; Supervisors: Bryony Williams and Bertram Daum
Protein magnetoreceptors: From quantum fluctuations to protein signalling; Supervisors: Daniel Kattnig and Jonathan Phillip
Unravelling genotype-phenotype relationships for bacterial biofilm formation at ultra-high-throughput using microfluidic droplets; Supervisors: Fabrice Gielen and Remy Chait
The avian compass probed on the single-molecule level - understanding the molecular basis of magnetoreception in the bird brain; Supervisors: Frank Vollmer and Daniel Kattnig
Studying early human embryo development using stem cell models; Supervisors: Ge Guo and Fabrice Gielen
The Structural Kinetic Mechanism of Catalysis in Gene Editing Enzymes; Supervisors: Jonathan Phillips and Kyle Wedgwood
Mapping pathogen transport and retention near ciliated surfaces; Supervisors: Kirsty Wan and Rachel Bennett (Bristol)
Identifying the neurobiological signatures of multisensory processing of emotional information to establish biomarkers for anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder; Supervisors: Krasimira Tsaneva-Atanasova and Anke Karl
Deciphering how microbial species in a community interact with each other and their environment using mathematical modelling and analysis; Supervisors: Krasimira Tsaneva-Atanasova and Stefano Pagliara
Fusing experiments and mathematical models to understand human embryo development; Supervisors: Marc Goodfellow and Austin Smith
Time-resolved enzyme structural studies; Supervisors: Nicholas Harmer and Bertram Daum
Mechanistic analysis of direct cell-cell communication in organ development; Supervisors: Steffen Scholpp and Ge Guo
Quantitative analysis of Wnt signalling in the Gastric Tumour Microenvironment; Supervisors: Steffen Scholpp, Tobe Phesse, and Fabrice Gielen

We also welcome your own ideas for a PhD project.

If you have an idea please contact s.west@exeter.ac.uk, he will be able to connect you to a potential supervisor.

How to apply

A link to the application website can be found here at the end of 2022

If you have any inquiries in the meantime please contact:

Director of Postgraduate Research (LSI), Steven West: s.west@exeter.ac.uk

Additional scholarship opportunity for students from China

We welcome all application from China via the China Scholarship Council (CSC).

You can apply either for one of the co-supervised projects above or to a project with an individual supervisor.

More information about special project for CSC students can be found here at the end of 2022.