PhD Studentship: Statistical machine learning to understand immune response in neurodegenerative disease- PhD by Research (Funded at home fees level)

It has been shown that immune responses play an important role in the genesis and progression of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. However, it is unclear what the underlying mechanisms are, at what stages in disease progression they are protective or detrimental and whether there are shared mechanisms across diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

The PhD position is part of a large-scale research project around immune response in neurodegenerative disease. The PhD student will be part of a data science team working on data analysis and experimental design as part of the larger project. The scope of the PhD project is to implement, use, and where required develop, statistical machine learning tools to identify DNA mutations that cause particular types of immune responses and their mechanisms of action. The highly impactful research will help develop personalised approaches to therapy.

Candidate suitability

This PhD studentship is a great opportunity for a student interested in applying statistics and data science methods in a collaborative and inter-disciplinary setting, with impactful applications in medical research. The project will suit students with a degree in statistics, computer science, data science or computational biology. Ideally, the applicant would have a background in both biology/biomedical sciences and statistics/data science. Applicants for this studentship must have obtained a First or Upper Second Class UK Honours degree, or the equivalent qualifications gained outside the UK. Preferably, applicants should have or be about to obtain, an MSc degree, or the equivalent qualifications gained outside the UK. Experience in coding in both Python and R is essential.

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