Open Scholarship Projects 2010-11: Apply Now!
The prestigious Lord Kelvin/Adam Smith Scholarship scheme was established in 2007 to support the development of innovative, boundary-crossing research at the University and is now in its fourth year. The scheme supports new partnerships between members of staff and will offer outstanding research students both from home and abroad the opportunity to undertake doctoral training in the context of cutting edge interdisciplinary research projects.
Each Scholarship will run for 4 years and will provide the successful students with a stipend at the Research Council recommended rates (£13,490 for 2010-11). On top of this the project will benefit from £5,300 per year as a contribution towards research and travel costs.
Please see below for information on the winning 2010-11 projects which are now recruiting students.
For further information on how to apply for one of these project scholarships please contact the project person indicated.
For further information on the Kelvin Smith Scholarship Scheme email pgr@enterprise.gla.ac.uk
Creating disease resistant transgenic plants armed with highly specific anti-pathogen protein antibiotics
Plant diseases cause annual worldwide crop losses valued at over £100 billion, a situation that is likely to be exacerbated as environmental change facilitates the establishment of new pathogens in previously unfavourable geographical areas. The aim of the project is to generate transgenic plants that express highly specific protein antibiotics targeted against specific bacterial plant pathogens. The initial phase will be to show proof of principle in a model system by expressing well characterised protein antibiotics with demonstrated cytotoxicity against specific bacterial pathogens in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The next phase of the project will involve the characterisation of protein antibiotics with activity against major plant pathogens and their expression in economically important crop plants.
Contact Dr Daniel Walker: D.Walker@bio.gla.ac.uk
Quantum process calculus and orbital angular momentum *SCHOLARSHIP FILLED*
Quantum computation enables tasks that are unfeasible in a classical context, for example the transmission of secret data with absolute security. At present, most quantum computation is based on bit-sized information. By using the orbital angular momentum of light as information carrier, information can be encoded in an infinite-dimensional state space, potentially allowing faster data transmission and better security protocols. Process calculus is a successful approach to the analysis of classical security protocols and has been used both to verify security and to discover attacks. Recently these techniques have been extended to quantum systems.
This project will combine, for the first time, the formal language of process calculus and the novel field of high-dimensional quantum computation. We aim to employ quantum process calculus to describe and analyze real experimental scenarios, e.g. the state-of-the-art downconversion experiments in the Optics Group, to consider error and noise, and to extend quantum process calculus to include high-dimensional quantum systems, e.g. the orbital angular momentum of light.
The project will be supervised by Dr Simon Gay (FATA: Formal Analysis, Theory and Algorithms Group, Department of Computing Science) and Dr Sonja Franke-Arnold (Optics Group, Department of Physics and Astronomy).
Contact Dr Simon Gay: simon@dcs.gla.ac.uk
Incorporating public responses to health communication into epidemiological models *SCHOLARSHIP FILLED*
The aim of this project is to develop a theoretical framework that explains how and why individuals change their behaviour in response to infectious disease, thus providing information to improve the accuracy of models used to predict disease spread.
A critical challenge for contemporary society is to understand and respond appropriately to emergent infectious diseases such as H1N1 (swine flu) and SARS. To do this, it is important to understand the processes that drive the spread and emergence of infectious diseases. In the last decade, epidemiologists have made important advances by recognising the role of heterogeneous contact processes in the spread of infectious disease. Nonetheless, existing models assume unchanged individual behaviour during outbreaks, although this assumption is known to be simplistic. Public health and informal communication can impact on perceptions of disease threat, influencing individual behaviour and changing epidemiological dynamics. However, this full spectrum has never been investigated comprehensively with the aim of informing predictive models. Missing from the synthesis is the contribution of social scientists with capability in the investigation and modelling of individual and collective behaviour. The supervisory team has expertise in the areas of science communication, lay constructions of disease knowledge and epidemiological transmission mechanisms, and an existing collaboration with an international team developing epidemiological models of this type. The supervisors will work with the student to develop a theoretical framework and collect data via interviews and survey methods on social responses to infectious disease. Integration into existing models should lead to significant improvements in predictive accuracy and support simulations to explore targeted health communication and make predictions relating to new diseases. This will allow health bodies to design health communication and related interventions to maximise the impact of limited resources and avert pandemic.
Contact Dr Katie Reid: K.Reid@educ.gla.ac.uk (please contact Dr Reid by email only)
Characterising the functional ecology of slow sand filtration through Metagenomics *SCHOLARSHIP FILLED*
The requirements for energy-efficient water treatment technologies are prompting renewed interest in ’biological’ water treatment processes such as slow sand filtration. These systems do not require chemicals or electricity to operate and can achieve a high level of treatment mainly attributed to naturally-occurring microorganisms within the filter. Several microbiologically mediated purification mechanisms (e.g. predation, scavenging, adsorption, bio-oxidation, etc.) have been hypothesised or assumed to occur within biofilms that form in the filter. Advances in molecular techniques coupled to next generation sequencing are transforming our understanding of the microbial world and provide an ideal platform to validate these hypotheses. The overall objective of this study is to characterise the functional microbial ecology of slow (bio)-sand filters through Metagenomics techniques and generate predictive mathematical models for their rational design and optimisation.
Contact Dr Christopher Quince: C.Quince@civil.gla.ac.uk
Targeted sensors to monitor oxidative stress in the secretory pathway of live cells *SCHOLARSHIP FILLED*
Cell stress and cell death caused by oxidative stress occurs during disease progression and the ageing process. It is also a major cause of the demise of cell factories used in the pharmaceutical industry to produce therapeutic proteins. One potential source of this oxidative stress is the secretory pathway which produces reactive oxygen species (ROS) as a consequence of secretory protein modification. Little is known about the extent of the stress caused by this pathway or how it is regulated. To approach this problem we will chemically synthesise novel sensors which will be used to measure the production of ROS in the secretory pathway of live cells. This will allow proteins involved in preventing oxidative stress to be identified to improve understanding of disease progression and ageing. The project would suit a chemist or biological chemist with an interest in applying their knowledge to solving problems in cell biology.
Contact Prof Neil Bulleid: N.Bulleid@bio.gla.ac.uk Dr Richard Hartley: R.Hartley@chem.gla.ac.uk
Constructing resilience and vulnerabilities through a fitness landscape metaphor *SCHOLARSHIP FILLED*
Current organisational forms are a representation of prior adaptations to environmental shifts. The development of organisational crises may be seen as a failure of the organisation to alter its structures and capabilities in order that they can deal with the task demands that are generated by the event. This research will seek to examine these issues and to set out a framework that may lead to a more robust conceptual framework for the analysis of crises and the development of ‘resilience’. This research will seek to use the metaphor of a ‘fitness landscape’ from systems biology to frame and analyse these responses in the context of three main systems states of ordered, complex and chaotic. The ability of an organisation to adapt to the task demands of these environmental states will be tested within the context of resilience policy within Scotland.
Contact Prof Denis Fischbacher-Smith: D.Fischbacher-Smith@lbss.gla.ac.uk
Does tissue niche influence differentiation and growth of mesenchymal stem cells? *SCHOLARSHIP FILLED*
Regenerative medicine, an interdisciplinary field of research focuses on the repair and replacement of tissues. It uses a combination of approaches including stem cell transplantation and tissue engineering. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are candidate cell types potentially useful for tissue repair. Generally MSCs are isolated from bone marrow but we have shown that MSC-like cells can be isolated from olfactory mucosal biopsies. Since these cells are isolated from different tissue niches it is not known if they would have identical differentiation properties. Controlling MSC differentiation is crucial for their potential use in regenerative medicine and recent advances in biomaterials has shown that chemistry, stiffness and topography can influence differentiation of stem cells. We plan to compare the differentiation potential of bone marrow MSCs to olfactory mucosa MSCs when plated on hydrogels designed to range from a soft to stiff consistency and also low to high conductivity to address if this can affect their subsequent biological properties or whether their original biological niche is instrumental in their inherent differentiation properties. The development of tuneable conductivity in biopolymers is entirely new and will set up new interdepartmental collaborations.
Contact Prof Susan Barnett: S.Barnett@clinmed.gla.ac.uk
Design and Development of Novel Biomaterials as Wound Healing Promoters *SCHOLARSHIP FILLED*
It is expected that by 2025, the number of diabetes sufferers in the UK will amount to 4 million people, most of them being Type 2 cases. This is not surprising if we consider the increase in the elderly population, and the increasing occurrence of obesity in the general population. A common problem associated with diabetes is impaired wound healing, which is often manifested in the ulcers in the legs and feet and can result in the loss of the affected limb.
Despite recent technological advances, impaired wound healing remains a challenge in both human and veterinary medicine. This lack of success can be attributed to a combination of ineffective wound healing promoters and/or unsuccessful delivery vehicles. We are proposing to develop a vibrant, exciting, and multidisciplinary research programme to develop new biologically active materials for wound healing and tissue engineering.
Contact Dr Rodolfo Marquez: R.Marquez@chem.gla.ac.uk
Transmission of Streptococcus agalactiae and its antimicrobial resistance determinants in networks of humans and animals *SCHOLARSHIP FILLED*
Some bacteria affect humans and animals, e.g. Streptococcus agalactiae (Group B Streptococcus, GBS). S. agalactiae can cause death in infants and elderly adults, and mastitis in cows, the latter with severe economic implications. S. agalactiae has been almost eradicated from most of Northern and Western Europe, but now appears to be re-emerging, most notably in Denmark, but also anecdotally elsewhere, and with signs of an increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR is of concern for many pathogens, often with controversy over the roles of human and animal hosts. Here, using the exceptional combination of cattle movement, drug usage and molecular data available in Denmark, we shall develop novel approaches to address the question of the relative contributions of livestock and humans to S. agalactiae increase in Denmark, and identify possible origins of AMR determinants so that further spread of the “bugs” and resistance to “drugs” can be prevented.
Contact Prof Rowland Kao: R.Kao@vet.gla.ac.uk