Life & Health Sciences
Contract Type:  Fixed Term
Basis:  Full Time
Closing Date:  Monday 09 June 2014
Reference:  R140129

Fully-funded BBSRC Industrial Case PhD Studentship (Full-Time)

Exploring the use of carbon nanotubes as new tools in vaccine development

Professor Yvonne Perrie, Dr Alex Rozhin (Aston University) and Dr Hélène Pendeville (Diagenode SA, Liège, Belgium)

Are you someone with a passion for science and working across scientific interfaces? Are you ambitious, self-motivated with the skills to develop new ideas and use nanotechnology to generate big ideas? Are you a UK or EU student who has at least an Upper Second Class Honours degree in a biological or chemical science or a related subject and looking for an opportunity to travel and work across academic and industrial sectors? Then this PhD is an ideal opportunity for you.

We are looking for applicants to join our exciting new collaboration that will create an innovative drug delivery system by combining liposomes with carbon nanotubes. This project will pool the expertise of Diagenode (leading European biotech company) in epigenetics and molecular biology with Aston University. The Aston team is a novel cross-disciplinary collaboration between Prof Yvonne Perrie, an expert in drug and vaccine delivery and Dr Alex Rozhin, an expert in advanced carbon nanomaterials and optical spectroscopy.

By joining this collaboration, you will gain from a world-class research programme in the fields of drug delivery, bioimaging and functional analysis. The research programme will be undertaken both within Aston and within the Diagenode SA Belgian site; you will spend 12 months at Aston learning a range of appropriate formulation and analysis methods of drug delivery systems before commencing a placement at Diagenode (6 months duration). You will then complete your PhD at Aston with additional time spent at Diagenode SA as required.

As a PhD student you will join Aston University’s School of Life and Health Sciences (LHS) which is ranked 3rd out of 63 UK Higher Education Institutions for research in Allied Health Professions and Studies in the last Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). Additional information about research in the School can be found at http://www1.aston.ac.uk/lhs/research/ . Informal enquiries can be made to Professor Yvonne Perrie (y.perrie@aston.ac.uk ).

Financial Support:

UK students (including EU nationals who have been continuously resident in the UK for the last3 years) will receive full tuition fees.  For UK Students only - a tax-free stipend will be provided at the current BBSRC rate of £13,863 p.a. and an additional Stipend uplift of £1,500 p.a.Overseas students are not eligible for funding . To check further into eligibility, please refer to the BBSRC Website.

Application Requirements:

• Eligible Applicants should hold at least a Bachelor (Hons.) Degree of either First Class or Upper Second Class or hold a Masters Degree (MSc/MRes) in a relevant discipline.· EU Applicants will need to demonstrate adequate proficiency in English Language skills, with a minimum overall score of 101 (Internet Based) (with a minimum score in each section of: R: 23, W:26, L: 23 andS: 22) in TOEFL or IELTS with minimum marks of 6.5 in each section and an overall band of 7.0.
• The Studentship is funded for 4 years, subject to a satisfactory progress review at the end of the first year, and with submission by 4 years is required. The anticipated Registration date is 1st October2014.
• Enquiries should be addressed to Professor Yvonne Perrie (E-mail: y.perrie@aston.ac.uk).

To apply please complete the on-line application form   at https://map.aston.ac.uk/urd/sits.urd/run/siw_ipp_lgn.login?process=siw_ipp_app&&code1=LHS230PR&code2=0015