Infection, Immunity & Inflammation PhD

Immunology research includes cytokine and chemokine biology, immune cell signalling, advanced imaging technologies, and cellular & gut immunology. Our translational efforts are focused on rheumatoid arthritis, dermatology, respiratory & central nervous system immune & inflammatory diseases.

OVERVIEW

The immune system provides vital protection against infection, and can be manipulated by vaccination to provide life-long resistance to pathogens. However, immune and inflammatory responses also make a major contribution to a spectrum of human pathologies, from chronic inflammatory disease, allergy and autoimmunity, neuroinflammatory disorders and brain immune interactions, to heart disease and cancer.

Research in the Centre for Immunobiology within the Institute for Infection, Immunity & Inflammation is focused on generating a molecular and cellular understanding of the immune system in health and disease, and applying this knowledge to the development of novel therapeutics. This is built on close interactions between an excellent cohort of scientists and clinicians within the Centre, and on the networks of collaborators they have established with researchers in the rest of the institute, elsewhere in the university, and further afield.

Our staff and students benefit from access to state-of-the-art laboratory facilities in the Sir Graeme Davis building at the heart of the university and in clinical units in hospitals across Glasgow. We have expertise in a broad range of techniques, including molecular biology, ‘Omics, cell biology, multiparameter flow cytometry, intravital imaging, and in vivo models of disease, and these approaches allow us to explore the immune system at the molecular, cellular and whole organism level.

The PhD programme in immunobiology is based on individual research projects covering an exciting range of topics, with specific areas of interest including (in alphabetical order):

• atherosclerosis
• bioinformatics
• cancer and leukaemia
• chemokines and cell migration
• cytokine biology
• dendritic cell biology
• imaging the immune response
• infectious disease
• intestinal immunity
• intracellular signalling and transcriptional regulation
• lymphocyte biology
• neuroimmunology, including repair strategies forbrain repair following immunologically mediated injury (Multiple Sclerosis, Guillain-Barré syndrome) and spinal cord injury using glial/stem cell transplantation and antibody profiling
• osteoimmunology
• rheumatology
• tissue injury and repair; focus on regenerative medicine.

Awarded or expected First-class or high Upper Second-class BSc degree.