Funded PhD opportunities
We wish to bring to your attention that there are currently two funded PhD opportunities, which may be suitable for BSP members interested in pursuing an academic career.
One is opportunity is at The University of Bristol and you can read more about the project below:
Causal pathways linking the oral microbiota to host health and disease
The oral cavity contains complex communities of bacteria that interact with host health, potentially driving host disease in some situations and responding to host health in others. Genetic epidemiology methods provide a toolkit for exploring these relationships. The overall research question is “what are the causal pathways linking the oral microbiota to host health and disease, as identified through genetic epidemiology methods?" The project will use oral microbiota data derived from ~ 10,200 twins. Methods will include classical twin modelling and two sample Mendelian randomization approaches.
The other opportunity is at King's College London:
Enhancing Outcomes of Minimally-Invasive Non-Surgical Therapy via Therapeutic Engagement of Resolution Mechanisms: Mechanistic Insights and Biomarker Identification
One in ten adults globally suffers from severe periodontitis, an inflammatory gum disease associated with worsening of other chronic inflammatory conditions such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and Alzheimer’s disease. Minimally-invasive non-surgical therapy (MINST) is a novel treatment for advanced periodontitis, shown to prevent tooth loss while avoiding complex surgeries. Recent evidence suggests that the ability to resolve inflammation is key to the success of MINST. Therefore, developing adjunctive therapies that activate inflammation-resolution pathways will widen the responsiveness to and increase the effectiveness of MINST.
This PhD project aims to explore an adjunctive therapies that may enhance MINST outcomes by activating inflammation-resolution pathways using a lipoxin-mimetic mouthwash, designed to promote inflammation resolution in oral tissues.
Preliminary data indicate that this intervention could improve clinical outcomes in MINST-treated patients. However, the underlying biological mechanisms remain unclear. This project will investigate how this adjunctive treatment modulates inflammation and resolution processes and identify biomarkers predictive of treatment response.