British Heart Foundation (BHF)-funded non-clinical PhD Studentship: Promoting inflammation resolution as a therapeutic strategy for cardiovascular pathologies
The Centre for Inflammation Research and Translational Medicine (CIRTM) at Brunel University London is offering a BHF-funded PhD studentship to investigate immune responses in cardiovascular disease (CVD).
CVD is a major global healthcare challenge and the leading cause of death at global level. Inflammation plays a major role in the aetiology and progression of CVD; therefore, factors that exacerbate inflammation (such as acute infections) can have a detrimental effect on the management of the disease. Considering its critical role (and its cross-talk with thrombosis), the discovery of novel pharmacological strategies able to promote the resolution of thromboinflammation can lead significant clinical benefits.
This PhD project will investigate the therapeutic potential of targeting specific resolution pathways to modulate microvascular thrombinflammation associated with acute infection, thereby unlocking new strategies for treating CVD.
Based in the College of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, this BHF-funded studentship offers a full-time current BHF-stipend rate of £22,278 plus Home tuition fees, for a maximum of 36 months.
The start date will be 1 January 2025.
Overview
This PhD studentship offers an exciting opportunity to explore how Formyl-Peptide-Receptor 2 (FPR2)-agonism drives thromboinflammation resolution after acute infection. The student will work with cutting-edge in-vivo imaging and advanced in-vitro microfluidic techniques to advance the pre-clinical development of novel anti-inflammatory therapeutic strategies for the treatment of CVD.
The student will receive comprehensive training in:
- Vessel-on-chip technology integrated with 2D/3D microfluidics
- Mammalian cell culture
- Rodent models of thromboinflammation
- Blood and tissue analysis
- Advanced flow cytometry
- Fluorescent intravital microscopy, widefield and confocal imaging
- RNA seqencing and transcriptomic data analysis and interpretation
The successful candidate will be supervised by an expert interdisciplinary team of researchers:
Eligibility
Ambitious and highly motivated candidates must have an undergraduate degree (first or upper second class), or MSc with merit or distinction, in pharmacology, biosciences or a related field. We encourage candidates with prior laboratory experience, especially in vascular biology, immunology, or inflammation, to apply. Preferred qualifications include experience with microfluidics and/or in-vivo work.
Applicants who have not been awarded a degree by a University in the UK will be expected to demonstrate English language skills to IELTS 7.0 (minimum 6.5 in any section).
How to apply
If you wish to apply, please e-mail the following to chmls-pgr-officestaff@brunel.ac.uk by 1 November 2024:
- An up-to-date CV
- A single-page A4 single-spaced personal statement describing why you are a suitable candidate (i.e. outlining your qualifications and skills)
- One example of your academic writing (e.g. an essay, a section from a dissertation)
- A summary of your teaching experience or your willingness to support teaching activities
- Names and contact details for two academic referees
- A copy of your highest degree certificate and transcript
- A copy of your English language qualification, where applicable
Short-listed applicants will be required to attend an interview likely week commencing 18 November 2024 and be instructed to submit a formal online application via Admissions.
For informal discussions, please contact Professor Felicity Gavins at felicity.gavins@brunel.ac.uk.
Felicity Gavins - Felicity read Pharmacology at the University of Sunderland, where she also embarked on an industrial placement year at Bayer Pharmaceuticals in Slough. After completing her BSc (Hons), she moved to London to study for a Ph.D. in Pharmacology at Queen Mary University London, supported by the British Heart Foundation (BHF). Felicity was then awarded a BHF Junior Research Fellowship to undertake further research both in the UK and the USA.
In 2007 Felicity joined Imperial College London to take up a Lectureship position in the Centre for Integrative Mammalian Physiology and Pharmacology (CIMPP). This was shortly followed by a senior lectureship and the appointment to Deputy Head of The Centre of Neurodegeneration & Neuroinflammation. In 2013 she accepted an academic position in the USA at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-Shreveport (LSUHSC-S) and was appointed Director of The Small Animal Imaging Facility.
Felicity is a Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society and of the Royal Society of Biology. She joined Brunel University London in August 2019 as Professor of Pharmacology and Royal Society Wolfson Fellow, and is the Director of The Centre for Inflammation Research and Translational Medicine (CIRTM).
Throughout her academic career, Felicity has worked with and served on numerous national and international research councils, medical charities and learned societies. She has published widely in her field and received a number of awards and honours for her work. She has received funding for her research from a range of funders including: the Royal Society and the Wolfson Foundation (RSWF), the British Heart Foundation (BHF), the Medical Research Council (MRC), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the American Heart Association (AHA), and the National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH/NHLBI).
Felicity continues to be actively involved in public and patient organizations which has been immensely instructive for her research. She is also dedicated to promoting mentoring and collaborative research, along with facilitating mentoring of post-doctoral fellows/early-career investigators.
Camilla Cerutti - Dr Camilla Cerutti is a Lecturer in Inflammation, Ageing and Cancer Biology at Brunel University London and
visiting researcher at the European Institute of Oncology since 2023.
Her research focuses on Vascular and Cancer cell biology in particular on cell-cell interaction and cancer metastasis.
Camilla graduated in medical Biotechnology (BSc) at the University of Milan Bicocca in Italy. At the same university she completed a MSc in Industrial Biotechnology-Pharmacogenomic- in 2009 with an ERASMUS final project placement of one year at Complutense University in Madrid, Spain. Here, she investigated the anti-tumoral effects of cannabinoids on breast cancer via JunD in vitro and via Akt in vivo (Caffarel et al. 2008 and 2010).
She completed her PhD in neuro-vascular immunology in 2014 at The Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, studying the role of human brain endothelial microRNAs in leukocyte adhesion in neurodegenerative disorder such as multiple sclerosis.
She developed an microfluidic system to model the interaction of human leukocyte with brain endothelial cells under hemodynamic shear forces in vitro (Cerutti et al 2022). She found that human brain endothelial mir-155, mir-126 and mir-126* regulate leukocyte trafficking at the blood-brain barrier in inflammatory conditions (Cerutti et al 2016 and 2017, Wu 2015).
Dr Cerutti joined the Ridley`s Lab at KCL, London, as research associate postdoc, where she investigated the role of RhoGTPases in human breast and prostate cancer cells in the interaction with endothelial cells and during metastasis formation (Cerutti et al 2021;and Cerutti et al 2024).
This CRUK funded project in collaboration with Prof Muschel Lab at the University of Oxford (Lucotti et al 2019) was further developed as senior research associate postdoc at the University of Bristol leading to find that IQGAP1 and NWASP promote human cancer cell dissemination and metastasis by regulating β1-integrin via FAK and MRTF/SRF.
In 2018 she won a Global Research Development Fund from KCL to join Peter Searson Nanobiotechnology Lab at the John Hopkins University (Baltimore, USA) to learn the fabrication of 3D perfusable vascular microvessels.
In 2020 Camilla was awarded the iCARE-2 MSCA H2020 fellowship as principal investigator of the project -Single-cell epigenetic and molecular signatures in human breast cancer metastasis formation - reintegration fellowship in the host lab of Professor Pier Giuseppe Pelicci at the European Institute of Oncology.
Currently, Dr Cerutti lab at Brunel University London investigates cancer metastasis mechanisms with 2D and 3D vascular models to study cell-cell interactions by high-content live-cell imaging.
Martin Scholze - I am a mathematician with a strong background in statistics and biology. My academic research has covered a wide range of areas, encompassing epidemiology, ecotoxicology, toxicology and pharmacology. Having gained an international reputation for my research in biomathematics and statistics in various interdisciplinary international Research projects, I can draw on a wide range of expertise and experience. Since 2007 I am working mainly as an independent consultant, providing consultancy and training in biostatistics, biomathematics and data management to a broad client base in the UK and Europe. My clients include industry, government, international organisations and the academic world. My aim is to make biostatistics accessible and effective as a tool to solve practical problems, based on sound statistical knowledge and modern developments in biostatistics and biomathematics. Qualifications Diploma in mathematics (major subject: statistics) Prediploma in biology Post-graduate qualification in epidemiology (German society for medical informatics, biometrics and epidemiology) Career 2011 - present: Research fellow. Institute for the Environment, Brunel University2007 – present: Independent biostatistical Consultant (Scholze Consultancy, London, UK) 2003 – 2007: Research scientist in two European Union-funded research projects, Centre for Toxicology, The School of Pharmacology, University of London. 1997 – 2003: Research scientist and Co-coordination in two European Union-funded research projects, University of Bremen, Department of Biology and Chemistry. 1996 – 1997: Research scientist, University of Bremen, Department of Statistics, Germany. 1994 – 1996: Research scientist in Epidemiological studies, Bremen Institute for Prevention Research and Social Medicine, Germany. 1992 – 1994: Research scientist in Epidemiological studies, University of Bremen, Department of Statistics, Germany.