School of Biosciences

Funding: 

This 3 year studentship is funded by Tenovus and will include a stipend and fees for home and E.U. students (reviewed annually by the University). Overseas students are welcome to apply. If successful, overseas students will receive a stipend and tuition fees at home rate and the student will need to provide their own funding to cover the difference between home and overseas tuition fees.

Project description:

High quality 3D cell culture models that recapitulate tissue organization, stem cell behaviour and differentation should advance drug discovery by allowing early candidate compounds to be separately optimised for efficacy and in vivo stability. In this studentship state-of-the-art 3D tissue-culture model that recapitulate Axin1 and Axin2 loss of function in liver and intestinal cancer will be developed. The culture systems are a recent breakthrough in 3D culture technology and maintain tissue stem cells in the absence of a supporting cell types. Liver and stem cell cultures with and without oncogenic stimuli (loss of the Axin1 or Axin2 antioncogenes) will be exposed to inhibitors of the Wnt pathway to identify compounds that have potential as anti-cancer therapeutics.

We seek an enthusiastic and highly motivated Ph.D. student who is expected to achieve/hold First or upper second class UK Honours degree or equivalent in relevant subject. This requirement may be waived for candidates with MSc or MPhil. For full entry requirements, please visit: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/biosi/degreeprogrammes/postgraduateresearch/index.html

This project is due to start in October 2011.

For further information please contact Professor Trevor Dale at DaleTC@cardiff.ac.uk .

For application and procedure: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/regis/general/applyonline/biosipgr.html