PhD in Cancer Imaging – Development of Novel Medical Lipid Profiling Technique for Integrated Magnetic Resonance (MR) Spectroscopy and Imaging to Unravel the Underpinning Biological Mechanism in Breast Cancer

Award Summary

Home tuition fees and an annual stipend of £18,622 are covered, with significant support for research costs, conferences and exchanges. International candidates will be required to fund the difference between the home and international fees.

Overview

Breast cancer is a major and expanding health challenge, with an urgent need for strategies for early detection and precision treatment. Cancerous tissues have altered biochemical compositions compared to healthy tissues, with such changes often preceding any detectable structural differences. MR spectroscopy is a powerful and non-invasive method for profiling tissue metabolites. Different metabolites have characteristic resonance frequencies that generate signals with distinctive spectral peaks. However, conventional MR spectroscopy is only collected from a single spatial location and overlapping spectral peaks often obscure each other. This project builds on our strong track record in cancer imaging, and aims to develop non-invasive lipid profiling approaches using novel integrated MR spectroscopy and imaging methods addressing these challenges with applications for breast cancer.

We are seeking a highly motivated student with a background in a quantitative discipline such as physics, mathematics, engineering, computing etc.The student will join a highly productive and rapidly expanding multidisciplinary team, including medical physicists, cancer biologists, oncologists, radiologists and surgeons, to deliver the project in three stages of methodology development, optimisation and clinical translation. The student will acquire transferable skills in numerical simulation, large data analysis, scanner programming, and expert knowledge in MR spectroscopy and imaging, and the clinical translation of novel medical imaging methods. 

Cancer research is a major strength of Newcastle University, hosting 1 of the 7 Cancer Research UK centres. Newcastle is one of the world’s leading centres of medical imaging for clinical translation, equipped with two Philips 3T MR scanner, one GE 3T PET-MR scanner and one 7T preclinical scanner.

Number Of Awards

1

Start Date

January 2024

Award Duration

3 years

Application Closing Date

27 October 2023

Sponsor

Newcastle University, Faculty Medical Sciences

Supervisors

Dr Jiabao He; Senior Lecturer in Medical Imaging; Translational and Clinical Research Institute

Professor Steve Clifford; Director of Newcastle Cancer Centre; Translational and Clinical Research Institute

Dr Simon Lowes; Consultant Radiologist; Translational and Clinical Research Institute

Professor Andrew Blamire; Head of Institute; Translational and Clinical Research Institute

Eligibility Criteria

You must have, or expect to achieve, at least a 2:1 honours degree or international equivalent. International applicants require an IELTS score over 6.5 overall and 5.5 in each subsection. 

How To Apply

Apply to Newcastle Portal

In ‘Course choice’ tab, put ‘Postgraduate Research’ in 'Type of Study', ‘Full Time’ in ‘Mode of Study’, ‘2023’ in ‘Year of Entry’, code ‘8440F‘ in ‘Course Title’, blank in ‘Research Area’. Press ‘Search’, select ‘PhD Translational and Clinical Research (FT)’, and save selection.

Either upload a document or write into ‘Personal Statement’ (mandatory). Put code ‘TC071’ in ‘Studentship/Partnership Reference’. When prompted for research proposal, select ‘Write Proposal’. Type in the title of the research project from this advert. Research proposal is not required. 

Contact Details

Dr Jiabao He (Jiabao.He@newcastle.ac.uk).

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