Biological Sciences PhD

About This Course

The research work by the School covers the full spectrum of the biosciences.

The first six months of your PhD or MPhil will be spent refining your project proposal and conducting a thorough Literature review, which will contribute to your final thesis. You will also present your proposal to the rest of the cohort and supervisory staff. Feedback obtained will enable you to improve your final project.

You will also be expected to take advantage of the training programme provided by the College of Natural Sciences Graduate School and the University Doctoral School in both subject-specific and generic postgraduate-level skills.

Research Areas

Animal Physiology and Behaviour with specialisations in:

Crustacean neuroendocrinology, growth, reproduction
Environmental physiology of aquatic organisms
Fish Behaviour
Integrative behavioural physiology/energetics
Marine mammals/conservation genetics

Cellular and Molecular with specialisations in:

Cancer Research
Cell Biology
DNA damage checkpoints
DNA repair
Endothelial development
Entomology
Eukaryote chromosome dynamics/repair
Eukaryotic cell control cycle
Forensic acarology
Human neural differentiation and cancer
Intracellular host-symbiont interactions
Mechanisms of mammalian signal transduction
Metabolic regulation
Metal-microbe interaction
Microbiology of extreme environments
Molecular medical/veterinary entomology
Molecular parasitology
Neurodegenerative genetics
Neuroscience
Reproductive parasites and pathogens of invertebrates
Vector biology

Ecology and Evolution with specialisations in:

Ancient DNA and long-term environmental change
Behavioural ecology
Biofilms
Biogeochemistry of aquatic ecosystems
Conservation Genetics
Ecology of clonal animals
Ecophysiology of aquatic organisms
Effects of climate change
Environmental biotechnology
Evolution of venomous snakes and venom
Evolutionary and population genetics
Evolutionary ecology and phylogeography
Fisheries Genetics
Geographic variation in lizards, snakes and amphibians
Molecular and evolutionary ecology
Molecular ecology and adaptation
Plant ecology
Wetland biogeochemistry
Wetland ecology
Wetlands for Pollution Control

Plant Systems and Technology with specialisations in:

Carbon partitioning
Physiology and genetics of abiotic stress resistance
Physiology of plant growth, cell wall proteins and genes
Plant genomics and metabolomics
Plant molecular biology
Plant physiology and carbon partitioning
Plant water relations
Plant-rhizosphere interactions
Single-cell transcriptomics and metabolomics
The biophysics of growth

Entry requires a good honours degree in a relevant biological subject or equivalent. Applicants from overseas must, in addition, demonstrate competence in English to an acceptable level.