PhD Studentship: Kinetic co-design of DNA amplification and ultrasensitive photonic sensing

Our central hypothesis is that more reliable and earlier DNA mutation discrimination can be achieved by co-optimising DNA amplification and photonic sensing.

The PhD candidate will study how the DNA amplification reactions can be codesigned with a novel DNA sensing system. They will consider the system-level probelm rather than optimising each component in isolation. Statistical, kinetic and Bayesian models will be used to optimise this coupled biochemical-photonic system. Detecting Single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) will provide a demanding test because the system must distinguish DNA sequences that differ by only one base. The PhD thesis will test whether whether co-designing the whole system can improve sequence discrimination when target and reference strands are otherwise almost identical.

Funding notes:
The MIBTP provides fully funded four-year PhD studentships, covering tuition fees, a tax-free annual stipend of £21,805 (2026/27 rate), approximately £4,500 per year for research consumables, and additional funding for travel and conferences.

References:

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/mibtp/phd/supervisors/RSimpson/#photonic_sensing

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