PhD Projects

Our students are studying diverse areas of mechanistic biology in the following BBSRC strategic themes:

Advancing the frontiers of bioscience discovery:

1) Understanding the rules of life (formerly World Class Underpinning Bioscience)

2) Transformative technologies (formerly Exploiting New Ways of Working)

Tackling strategic challenges:

3) Bioscience for sustainable agriculture and food (formerly Agriculture and Food Security)

4) Bioscience for renewable resources and clean growth (formerly Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy)

These are the new BBSRC priority areas, taken from strategic document, “Forward look for UK Bioscience”, available on the BBSRC website:

https://bbsrc.ukri.org/documents/forward-look-for-uk-bioscience-pdf/

	Name	Project title
	Liam Barratt University of York 2019	Future-proofing Our Food: Increasing Tolerance to Abiotic Stress in Hexaploid Bread Wheat Using Associative Transcriptomics
	Megan Clarke University of Leeds 2019	Primed for parasitism: pathogenic nematodes tailor their response to host plant exudates
	Sameh ElBadry University of Sheffield 2019	Characterisation of the mechanism of HIF mediated genoprotection in zebrafish
	Zoe Ingold University of York 2019	Engineering Carbon-carbon Bond Forming Enzymes from Plants for Applications in Industrial Biotechnology
	Ezra Herman University of York 2019	Unravelling evolutionary mechanisms of phage-bacteria interactions in spatially structured microbial communities
	Jessica Downing University of York 2018	Genomics-guided approaches to enzyme discovery in the extremophile Galdieria sulphuraria (i-CASE)
	Madeleine Inglis University of Leeds 2018	Flight Control in Birds
	Egle Beigaite University of York 2018	Characterising a novel candidate gene regulating ageing related atrophy in neurons
	Alexander Setchfield University of York 2018	Microbial degradation of agricultural residues as feed for black soldier fly larvae (iCASE)
	Sonam Sidhu University of York 2018	Dissecting molecular complexity in single living cells using state-of-the-art super-resolution microscopy and biophysical chemistry, one molecule at a time
	Laura Wiggins University of York 2018	Using machine learning to predict cell type and fate in heterogeneous populations (NPIF)
	Alexander Scott University of York 2018	How does low-temperature plasma damage the bacterial outer membrane?
	Alexander Russell University of York 2018	Dissecting a role for ZAK-beta in skeletal muscle development using genetics and embryology in zebrafish and Xenopus
	Benjamin Rowlinson University of York 2018	Unravelling the structural biology of the LIMD1 scaffold protein using novel NMR approaches
	Katie Greenin University of Sheffield 2018	Maintaining effective sensory coding in the face of inter-neuronal variation
	Lianne Gahan University of Sheffield 2018	A new mathematical framework for Aβ peptide assembly in Alzheimer’s disease
	Thomas Emrich-Mills University of Sheffield 2018	Developing de novo architectures of photosynthetic complexes for the control of photocurrent output from reaction centres.
	Molly Patterson University of Leeds 2018	Re-wiring epithelial homeostasis: Papillomavirus targeting of the Hippo signalling
	Jacob Leese University of Leeds 2018	Investigating the molecular mechanisms underpinning the arthropod segmentation clock
	Katherine Harper University of Leeds 2018	The role of circRNA dysregulation during KSHV infection
	Lewis Hancock University of Sheffield 2018	Modelling complexity and redundancy in actin polymerization
	Romany Mclure University of Leeds 2018	Identifying and modulating aggregation propensity in bio-pharmaceuticals (i-CASE)
	Samuel Haysom University of Leeds 2018	The structure and function of the ß-barrel assembly machinery
	Luke Fountain University of Sheffield 2018	Investigating links between plant nitrogen preference, root exudation and microbial nitrogen cycling
	Catherine Russell University of York 2018	Investigating Bromodomain Proteins as Targets for anti-Leishmanial Drug Discovery
	Amy Brown University of York 2018	The role of the stress kinase MLTK7 in muscle disease
	Liam Maddison University of Leeds 2018	Probing the function of RNA methylation through chemical biology (iCASE)
	Rachel Greenhill University of Sheffield 2018	Identification and functional validation of effector genes in the parasitic weed Striga asiatica
	Maria Nikolova University of Leeds 2018	Mechanism and structure of the PACE family of transport proteins
	Josh Lee University of York 2018	Probing the epitranscriptome with nanopore sequencing (iCASE)
	Alice Seleiro University of Sheffield 2018	Uncovering underlying cellular mechanisms at work under high cell density E. coli protein production conditions in biotechnology (iCASE)
	Evie Farnham University of York 2018	Evolution, virulence and dispersal of bacterial plant pathogen, Ralstonia solanacearum (iCASE)
	Amber Emmett University of Leeds 2018	Machine Learning to Predict Genetic Regulation in Blood Cells
	Adam Casey University of Leeds 2018	Improving pest management in coffee plantations (iCASE)
	Katie West University of York 2018	Understanding long non-­coding RNA function
	Savvas Ioannou University of York 2018	Engineering extracellular vesicles derived from human mesenchymal stem cells
	James Forsythe University of York 2018	How does the circadian clock regulate disease resistance?
	Ashley Hayes University of Leeds 2018	Investigating How Nematodes Manipulate the Plant Secretory Pathway
	John Armstrong University of York 2017	Borrowing building blocks from bacteria and eukaryotes: a three-component DNA segregation machinery in archaea
	Rachael Cooper University of York 2017	How do repetitive bacterial surface proteins avoid inter-domain aggregation?
	Rhianna Rowland University of York 2017	Imaging agents for genetic disease: structural, chemical and cellular dissection
	Sarah Tindall University of York 2017	Structural analysis of acyltransferase proteins involved in O-antigen modification
	Sarah Thorne University of York 2017	Improved wheat yield with silicon
	Kirstin Spence University of York 2017	Investigating the molecular machinery that controls autophagy during Leishmania spp. Differentiation
	Edward Nay University of York 2017	Regulation of gene expression in Leishmania parasites: structure, function and post-transcriptional modification of RNA binding proteins
	Jessica Dobson University of York 2017	Mechanisms of palladium uptake and nanoparticle formation by plants
	Grace Dobbs University of York 2017	Role of CIZ1 in X chromosome inactivation
	Grace Cowen University of York 2017	Role of DNA methylation in brain function
	Ana Almeida Jones University of Sheffield 2017	Ahead of the curve: imaging and computational analysis of shape and form in the developing zebrafish ear
	Amy Tooke University of Sheffield 2017	Seeing is believing, observing bacterial biofilm formation in vivo