PhD Studentship: Metabolic Psychiatry – Understanding Ethnic and Global Differences in the Inter-Relationships Between Obesity and Mental Health. MRC GW4 BioMed DTP PhD Studentship 2024/25 Entry, PhD in Clinical and Biomedical Sciences.

The GW4 BioMed2 MRC DTP is offering up to 22 funded studentships across a range of biomedical disciplines, with a start date of October 2024.

These four-year studentships provide funding for fees and stipend at the rate set by the UK Research Councils, as well as other research training and support costs, and are available to UK and International students.

About the GW4 BioMed2 Doctoral Training Partnership

The partnership brings together the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff (lead) and Exeter to develop the next generation of biomedical researchers. Students will have access to the combined research strengths, training expertise and resources of the four research-intensive universities, with opportunities to participate in interdisciplinary and 'team science'. The DTP already has over 90 studentships over 6 cohorts in its first phase, along with 38 students over 2 cohorts in its second phase.

The 80 projects available for application, are aligned to the following themes;

• Infection, Immunity, Antimicrobial Resistance and Repair
  • Neuroscience and Mental Health
  • Population Health Sciences

Applications open on 4nd September 2023 and close at 5.00pm on 1st November 2023.

Studentships will be 4 years full time.  Part time study is also available.

Project Information Research Theme:

Neuroscience & Mental Health

Summary:

Many people live with multiple health conditions, but research still tends to focus on individual diseases. This project focuses on two global health problems with a complex relationship: obesity and mental health. The student will become an expert in metabolic psychiatry, training at 3 world leading centres. They will utilise global studies, with genetic and life course approaches to understand complex relationships between obesity and mental health.

Description:

This exciting interdisciplinary global health PhD will provide the student with an excellent underpinning in metabolic psychiatry, a new and exciting area focusing on the shared aetiology of metabolic and mental health. There is growing interest in the causes and consequences of multimorbidity, but huge research gaps remain, especially in diverse ethnic groups. This PhD addresses these issues, focusing on the inter- relationships between obesity and the mood-psychosis spectrum of severe mental illness (SMI; schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression). This topic represents an area of high priority for patients and their families because people with SMI have very high rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes and increased mortality from cardiovascular disease. There is some evidence to support shared causal and/or bi- directional mechanisms between metabolic dysfunction (e.g. obesity, type 2 diabetes) and psychopathology. However, many unanswered questions remain, for example it is not clear if these relationships are consistent globally nor whether lifestyle and diet partially explain the causal relationships. The student will use cutting-edge genetic methods for causal inference, and for interrogating causal effects in ethnically diverse populations – both across the UK and across multiple global settings. The focus on diverse populations is a key priority area for genetic epidemiology, which has historically been biased towards white European populations.

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