Supervisors

Lead Supervisor: Dr Jess Tyrrell, Univeristy of Exeter, Faculty of Health and Life Science.

CO-Supervisors: 

Professor Laura Howe, University of Bristol, Bristol Medical School

Professor Marianne van den Bree, Cardiff University, Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences

The GW4 BioMed2 MRC DTP is offering up to 21 funded studentships across a range of biomedical disciplines, with a start date of October 2025.

These four-year studentships provide funding for fees and stipend at the rate set by the UK Research Councils, as well as other research training and support costs, and are available to UK and International students.

About the GW4 BioMed2 Doctoral Training Partnership

The partnership brings together the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff (lead) and Exeter to develop the next generation of biomedical researchers. Students will have access to the combined research strengths, training expertise and resources of the four research-intensive universities, with opportunities to participate in interdisciplinary and 'team science'. The DTP already has over 90 studentships over 6 cohorts in its first phase, along with 58 students over 3 cohorts in its second phase.

The 120 projects available for application, are aligned to the following themes;

• Infection, Immunity, Antimicrobial Resistance and Repair

• Neuroscience and Mental Health

• Population Health Sciences

 

Applications open on 10th September 2024 and close at 5.00pm on 4th November 2024.

Studentships will be 4 years full time.  Part time study is also available.

Project Information

Research Theme: Neuroscience & Mental Health

Project Summary: Many people live with multiple health conditions, but research still tends to focus on individual diseases. This project, focuses on two global health problems with a complex relationship: obesity and mental health. The student will become an expert in metabolic psychiatry, training at 3 world leading centres. They will utilise global studies, with genetic and life course  approaches to understand complex relationships between obesity and mental health.

Project Description: 

This exciting interdisciplinary global health PhD will provide the student with an excellent underpinning in metabolic psychiatry, a new and exciting area focusing on the shared aetiology of metabolic and mental health. There is growing interest in the causes and consequences of multimorbidity, but huge research gaps remain, especially in diverse ethnic groups. This PhD addresses these issues, focusing on the inter relationships between obesity and the mood-psychosis spectrum of severe mental illness (SMI; schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression).

This topic represents an area of high priority for patients and their families because people with SMI have very high rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes and increased mortality from cardiovascular disease. There is some evidence to support shared causal and/or bi directional mechanisms between metabolic dysfunction (e.g. obesity, type 2 diabetes) and psychopathology. However, many unanswered questions remain, for example it is not clear if these relationships are consistent globally nor whether lifestyle and diet partially explain the causal relationships. The student will use cutting-edge methods for causal inference, and for interrogating causal effects in ethnically diverse populations – both across the UK and across multiple global settings. The focus on diverse populations is a key priority area for genetic epidemiology, which has historically been biased towards white European populations.

The student will use large cohort studies and genetic summary statistics in 100,000s of people to address several questions:
1. Is there a bidirectional causal relationship between the SMIs and obesity, and does this relationship vary by ethnic group in the UK and global settings?
2. What modifiable risk factors (e.g. physical activity, diet, smoking, medications) explain or mediate the relationship between SMIs and obesity, and do causal pathways differ across ethnic groups?
3. Which factors mitigate against the negative impacts of SMIs on obesity and vice versa, and do these resilience-promoting factors differ across ethnic groups?

Identifying causal associations in populations with diverse ancestries will provide important information about the complex and potentially setting-specific relationships between obesity and SMIs, thereby informing global decisions on medical management and public health strategies for both conditions over the life course. This builds on work led by the supervisory team members in Exeter, Bristol and Cardiff exploring the role of genetic and environmental factors in higher BMI on depression in Europeans and South and East Asians and in considering mental-metabolic multimorbidity across the life course. The student will have the opportunity to develop skills in several cutting edge methodologies, including genetic (e.g. Mendelian randomisation (MR) and copy number variants (CNVs)) and epidemiological approaches in several datasets (e.g. UK Biobank, China Kadoorie Biobank).

The student will gain skills in:
1. Statistical analyses: Regression models; mediation analysis; lifecourse epidemiology approaches.
2. Genetic analyses: One- and two-sample MR; MR for mediation; MR in populations with diverse ancestry; within-family MR; analysis of CNVs.
3. Data science: handing large datasets including electronic health records.
4. Clinical science: psychiatric assessments and cardiometabolic health.
The student will be able to tailor their PhD based on areas of interest, for example, focusing on a specific SMI. They will work across disciplinary boundaries, with their supervisors and external collaborators coming from molecular/genetic, epidemiological, psychiatric and physical health and advanced biostatistical backgrounds. We believe this PhD will provide an excellent platform for a successful scientific career, focusing on two high priority research areas, multimorbidity and diverse populations.

Funding

This studentship is funded through GW4BioMed2 MRC Doctoral Training Partnership. It consists of UK tuition fees, as well as a Doctoral Stipend matching UK Research Council National Minimum (£19,237 p.a. for 2024/25, updated each year).

Additional research training and support funding of up to £5,000 per annum is also available.

Eligibility

Residency:

The GW4 BioMed2 MRC DTP studentships are available to UK and International applicants. Following Brexit, the UKRI now classifies EU students as international unless they have rights under the EU Settlement Scheme. The GW4 partners have agreed to cover the difference in costs between home and international tuition fees. This means that international candidates will not be expected to cover this cost and will be fully funded but need to be aware that they will be required to cover the cost of their student visa, healthcare surcharge and other costs of moving to the UK to do a PhD.  All studentships will be competitively awarded and there is a limit to the number of International students that we can accept into our programme (up to 30% cap across our partners per annum).

Academic criteria:

Applicants for a studentship must have obtained, or be about to obtain, a first or upper second-class UK honours degree, or the equivalent qualification gained outside the UK, in an appropriate area of medical sciences, computing, mathematics or the physical sciences.  Applicants with a lower second class will only be considered if they also have a Master’s degree. Please check the entry requirements of the home institution for each project of interest before completing an application. Academic qualifications are considered alongside significant relevant non-academic experience.

English requirements:

If English is not your first language you will need to meet the English language requirements of the university that will host your PhD by the start of the programme. Please refer to the details in the following web page for further information https://www.exeter.ac.uk/study/englishlanguagerequirements/

Data Protection

If you are applying for a place on a collaborative programme of doctoral training provided by Cardiff University and other universities, research organisations and/or partners please be aware that your personal data will be used and disclosed for the purposes set out below.

Your personal data will always be processed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations of 2018. Cardiff University (“University”) will remain a data controller for the personal data it holds, and other universities, research organisations and/or partners (“HEIs”) may also become data controllers for the relevant personal data they receive as a result of their participation in the collaborative programme of doctoral training (“Programme”).

Further Information

For an overview of the MRC GW4 BioMed programme please see the website www.gw4biomed.ac.uk

Entry requirements

Academic Requirements

Applicants for a studentship must have obtained, or be about to obtain, a first or upper second-class UK honours degree, or the equivalent qualification gained outside the UK, in an appropriate area of medical sciences, computing, mathematics or the physical sciences. Applicants with a lower second class will only be considered if they also have a Master’s degree. Please check the entry requirements of the home institution for each project of interest before completing an application. Academic qualifications are considered alongside significant relevant non-academic experience.

English Language Requirements

If English is not your first language you will need to meet the English language requirements of the university that will host your PhD by the start of the programme. Please refer to the relevant university website for further information.  This will be at least 6.5 in IELTS or an acceptable equivalent.  Please refer to the English Language requirements web page for further information.

How to apply

A list of all the projects and how to apply is available on the DTP’s website at gw4biomed.ac.uk.  You may apply for up to 2 projects and submit one application per candidate only.

Please complete an application to the GW4 BioMed2 MRC DTP for an ‘offer of funding’.  If successful, you will also need to make an application for an 'offer to study' to your chosen institution.

Please complete the online application form linked from our website by 5.00pm on Monday, 4th November 2024.  If you are shortlisted for interview, you will be notified from Friday, 20th December 2024.  Interviews will be held virtually on 23rd and 24th January 2025.

Further Information

For informal enquiries, please contact GW4BioMed@cardiff.ac.uk

For project related queries, please contact the respective supervisors listed on the project descriptions on our website.

Summary