PhD Studentship: Development of novel rapid diagnostics for sepsis using the latest nanopore sequencing technologies (OGRADYQ19DART)
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FULL DESCRIPTION
PhD Studentship: Development of novel rapid diagnostics for sepsis using the latest nanopore sequencing technologies (OGRADYQ19DART)
[Employer hidden — view at passion-project.co.uk] is offering a PhD studentship to develop rapid diagnostics for sepsis using nanopore sequencing. The project involves pathogen enrichment, host DNA depletion, and bioinformatics analysis. Duration: 3.5 years. Stipend: £17,509 per annum.
Project Description
Rapid diagnosis is critical for effective clinical management of life-threatening infections, especially bloodstream infections (BSI). Every hour delay in effective antimicrobial therapy increases risk of mortality by 10%. The gold standard for BSI diagnosis is blood culture, but it has low sensitivity and long turnaround time (2-5 days). Nanopore sequencing based clinical metagenomics could replace culture. PhD aims: 1) develop a metagenomics sequencing based BSI diagnostic pipeline combining novel pathogen enrichment and host depletion technologies with nanopore sequencing and analysis; 2) optimise and validate on spiked blood samples; 3) clinically evaluate on patient samples; 4) develop bioinformatic analysis tools for public health applications. The student will work closely with Momentum Bioscience Ltd and spend 3 months at their company in Oxford. Training includes host DNA depletion, qPCR, nucleic acid extraction, clinical protocol writing, ethical approval, nanopore sequencing, Flongle, PromethION, and bioinformatics.
Funding Notes
The studentship is for 3.5 years and covers full tuition fees (Home/EU), a student stipend of £17,509 (2019/20 UKRI stipend £15,009pa & iCASE partner contribution of £2,500pa) and a Research Training Support Grant (£5,000pa). Available to students who meet UK residency requirements. EU students not meeting UK residency may be eligible for fees-only award. Funded by MRC Doctoral Antimicrobial Research Training Programme (DART).
Application
Closing date: 29 July 2019. Interviews expected 12-14 August 2019. For further information and to apply, visit https://www.uea.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research-degrees/phds-and-studentships/dart-mrc-icase. Also see the link.