Undergraduate summer studentships
Dean's Vacation Research Scholarships
The 2022 scheme is now open. Deadline for applications is 28th January 2022 at noon. Please send your application via email to fbsris@leeds.ac.uk. Applications should consist of a covering letter, along with your curriculum vitae.
These projects are offered by Faculty postdocs and internally funded. Applicants will be shortlisted and invited for interview. The intention of these awards is that successful candidates will be supervised in the lab by the postdoc leading the project. However, whilst every effort will be made to offer lab placements, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, it may be that an alternative literature project has to be offered. The stipend offered to the undergraduate is £200 per week.
Project Supervisor | Project details |
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Dr Samantha Hover |
Imaging Influenza virus RNA genome assembly with high spatial and temporal resolutions. |
Dr Gemma Lyall |
Molecular mechanisms of vascular impairment in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction |
Dr Lauryn New |
Investigating the presence of glial endozepines in the dorsal vagal complex and their proposed role in glucose homeostasis Glial endozepines such as DBI and ODN may be involved in the neuronal regulation of homeostatic feeding behaviours including food intake, energy expenditure, and brain glucose-sensing. The DBI gene is expressed by neurones and glia within the hypothalamus relative to nutritional status and ODN in the DVC acts to inhibit autonomic feeding related behaviour. Our lab has recently shown how NTS astrocytes influence food intake and body weight and is investigating how GABAergic neurones, which are influenced by DBI and ODN, may be insulin sensing. However, it is still unclear which specific neuronal and glial populations within the DVC are involved in DBI or ODN-mediated negative neuronal-glial feedback loops. The successful candidate will therefore carry out immunofluorescent staining of ex-vivo rat brain tissue to characterise these ODN+ and DBI+ populations in the DVC. The student will section tissue and use double labelling IHC for the detection of ODN and DBI alongside several well-known markers of neurones, glia, and specific neurochemistry. They will also quantify and analyse findings using ImageJ software. There is also scope to carry out similar work in high-fat diet fed insulin resistant animals. |
Dr Karl Norris |
Investigating the role of IFRD1 in ribosome specialisation and male fertility Ribosomes are the macromolecular machines that catalyse protein synthesis. Studies over the last decade have shown that ribosomes can become specialised by changes in their composition (1). These specialised ribosomes target specific mRNA transcripts for translation and are crucial for organismal development (2). Subsequently, they have been implicated in cancers, Alzheimer’s disease and a class of diseases known as ribosomopathies (2). The successful candidate will investigate the importance of IFRD1 to male fertility using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism. Using the UAS-GAL4 system, IFRD1 RNAi will be targeted to the testis and knockdown will be confirmed via RT-qPCR. The impact of IFRD1 knockdown on translational regulation and male fertility will be assessed using puromycin incorporation assays, immunostaining and fertility assays. 1. Xue, S. and Barna, M. (2012) Specialized ribosomes: a new frontier in gene regulation and organismal biology. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol, 13, 355-369. |
Dr James Warren |
Self-assembling peptide hydrogels for the treatment of cartilage damage The objectives of the project would be to investigate the effects of altering the composition of the SAP:GAG ratio. This would be achieved by: 1) Systematically adjusting the ratio of GAG:SAP from the one previously studied and investigate the effect of increasing this ratio of GAGs relative to the SAP. 2) Additionally, altering the specific SAP – as many different variants are currently available within the SAP family, would alter the net charge and subsequent chemical and material properties of the SAP. This in turn could alter the effect that increasing GAG content would have. 3) The effects of these systematic changes would be investigated through visual changes in the hydrogel appearance (apparent turbidity, viscosity, state) as well as chemical changes such as pH, rate of assembly. The material properties of the systems could be assessed using an in-house BOSE material testing set up to measure material properties such as the rheology of the systems. 4) Successful candidate systems (ones with improved clinical relevance – such as increased rate of assembly/strength of assembly) would then be assessed through injection into a relevant tissue model currently used within our group that attempts to replicate the GAG depleted state of early stage osteoarthritis. |