Modern scientific innovation involves the integration of diverse disciplines and the bridging of pure and application-oriented research. This requires a new generation of scientists who are trained to think and experiment beyond traditional boundaries. The recently established Living Systems Institute (LSI), University of Exeter, provides this opportunity by housing world-leading Biologists, Physicists, Mathematicians, Computational Scientists and Engineers using cutting-edge technologies.
About the award
Understanding and manipulating living systems requires the ability to control how cells behave in a precise and specific manner. Given the complexity of biological processes, discoveries that will ultimately lead to successful applications are likely to emerge from research in the context of the whole living system. Research in the Living Systems Institute (LSI) addresses biological mechanism on all scales, spanning all disciplines and using the latest technology. This integrated interdisciplinary approach is aimed both at fundamental discoveries and at enabling innovation in healthcare and therapy.
Programme overview
Modern scientific innovation involves the integration of diverse fields and the bridging of pure and application-oriented research. This requires a new generation of scientists who are trained to think and experiment beyond traditional boundaries. The recently established Living Systems Institute provides this opportunity by housing world leading Biologists, Physicists, Mathematicians, Computational Scientists and Engineers who work together using cutting-edge technologies. The mission is to understand life across all scales - from individual atoms to whole organisms - and to discover approaches for improving health and treating disease.
The University of Exeter wish to recruit highly motivated and imaginative students from across the full range of disciplines to join a thriving community of over 50 PhD students.
Funding
Places are fully funded with funding also available for overseas applicants. This includes payment of tuition fees, a personal stipend for 3.5 years (currently £15,285 per year 2020/21) and a training budget.
Applications are also welcomed from candidates who can provide partial or full-funding from other sources.
Training
The variety of research systems, fields and approaches in the Living Systems Institute provide a multitude of training opportunities for our PhD students. Throughout your studies you will be supported to develop a broad skillset. The university tailors training needs on an individual basis, including secondment opportunities in other labs within the institute. The interdisciplinary training programme includes physical, mathematical and computational analyses of living systems alongside exposure to the latest techniques in Biological sciences.
Research Culture
You will join a friendly and diverse community of students within the Living Systems Institute. The research staff and students experience a vibrant research culture. Within the programme, PhD student-led seminar series’, journal clubs and discussion groups are aimed at developing peer-to-peer learning and discourse.
PhD project
The cross-disciplinary faculty are spread over four broad research themes:
Biosensing: elucidating and exploiting the modalities by which biological systems sense and respond to their environments
Physics of Living Systems: combining biology, physics and mathematics to reveal the organisation and dynamics of living systems
Engineering Biology: deconstructing and reconstructing biological phenomina from molecular and cellular component parts
Modelling: developing and analysing mathematical models to explain and predict function and dysfunction in biological systems
The project will usually be co-supervised by two academics from different fields.
