PhD Studentship - Understanding the Sweet-liking Phenotypes: Differences in Eating Behaviour and Metabolic Responses to Food intake as a Function of Sweet liking – Implications for Personalised Weight Loss Interventions

Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Oxford Institute of Applied Health Research (OxINAHR)

3 Year, full-time funded PhD Studentship

Eligibility: Home UK/EU applicants who must be permanently resident in the UK

Bursary p.a.: Bursary equivalent to UKRI national minimum stipend plus fees (current 2023/24 bursary rate is £18,622)

Fees and Bench fees: will be met by the University for the 3 years of the funded Studentship.

Closing date: Monday 8 April 2024

Start Date: September 2024

Project Title: Understanding the sweet-liking phenotypes: differences in eating behaviour and metabolic responses to food intake as a function of sweet liking – implications for personalised weight loss interventions

Director of Studies: Dr Sangeetha Thondre

Other supervisors: Dr Vasiliki Iatridi, Dr Aisling Daly

Requirements:

Applicants should have a first or upper second-class honours degree from a Higher Education Institution in the UK or acceptable equivalent qualification.

EU Applicants must have a valid IELTS Academic test certificate (or equivalent) with an overall minimum score of 6.5 to 7.0 and no score below 6.0 issued in the last 2 years by an approved test centre.

The studentship requires you to undertake the equivalent of up to 6 hrs teaching per week on average, during semester time, and to include preparation and marking (but no more than 20 hrs per week), and to participate in a teaching skills course without further remuneration.

Project Description:

Seeking an enthusiastic contributor for this exciting project combining physiology and psychology to impact population health.

Is the 'sweet tooth' to blame for obesity? During exposure to food stimuli, afferent information from the food’s sensory properties, the body’s (an)orexigenic hormones, and prior memories are integrated centrally. The degree to which ingestive behaviour is biased toward hedonic or homeostatic signals depends on the food type and our need state. Sweetness with its dopamine‐ and opioid‐dependent reinforcing properties and post-ingestive gut‐to‐brain sensing pathways may steer our choices toward overconsumption, and ultimately weight gain. However, we have not uniformly developed obesity. To respond to the call for personalised/multidisciplinary weight management strategies, exploring taste hedonics' role in the interplay between physiology and psychology in overeating shows promise. This project aims to explore the link between interpersonal variation in sweet-liking with appetite control and behavioural traits to inform the development of a novel personalised weight loss e-intervention.

Join our friendly interdisciplinary community, working in state-of-the-art labs under the supervision of subject-area experts. Dr Thondre's research focuses on glycaemia, satiety, and sensometrics. Dr Iatridi has developed the Sussex sweet-liking phenotyping test and published work on sweetness and eating behaviours. Dr Daly is a public health mixed methods researcher. Collaborators from the School of Psychology at Sussex University and Oxford University's Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences will bring their expertise in appetite research and weight loss trials.

Application process: For details, please visit the project link on our research funding opportunities webpage via the ‘Apply’ button above

Complete applications should include a research proposal (max 500 words) about how you would conduct the study.

Queries: contact hls-applications@brookes.ac.uk

Project queries: contact Dr Vasiliki Iatridi: viatridi@brookes.ac.uk

Provisional interview date: 29 April 2024.

In-person interviews anticipated.

Part time MPhil/PhD study will be exceptionally considered.

Advertised on a competitive basis alongside the studentship ‘Technology in diabetes self-care: use and contextual engagement with flash and continuous glucose monitoring’.

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