Projects
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New PhD Project Opportunity for October 2024 start
University of Glasgow
Bioengineered human tissue models of leukaemia to improve drug development
The bone marrow is a complex organ that maintains a stem cell pool (haematopoietic stem cells), providing new blood cells through our lives. However, diseases, such as blood cancers, leukemias, develop in the bone marrow. This process of transition from health to disease of the key stem cells has been hard to understand as the stem cells do not grow out of the body, making them difficult to study. We have developed a synthetic bone marrow microenvironment1 made from human stem cells and soft hydrogel biomaterials in which the stem cells can survive and grow. In this PhD project, we will study the transition to disease. A hallmark of cancer evolution in the bone marrow is metastasis to secondary organs, such as the lymph nodes. Therefore, we will engineer both the bone marrow, and a secondary organ connected using microfluidics so that we can observe cancer onset and metastasis. Such approaches will allow us to understand the efficacy of novel drugs and the safety of new therapies, such as gene edited stem cells. The student will join a multidisciplinary team of cell biologists, cell engineers and bioengineers at the Centre for the Cellular Microenvironment within the new Advanced Research Centre at the University of Glasgow. They will develop skills in stem cell culture and associated biological analysis (microscopy (fluorescent, confocal), PCR, western analysis, RNA sequencing and metabolomics) and biomaterials analysis (microscopy, rheology, nanoindentation).
Deadline for applications is Wednesday 4th September 2024
**Please note, this project is for UK HOME applications only**