PhD

There has been a lot of interest in the PhD advert “Multimodal Neuroimaging in Atypical Parkinsonian Disorders”. I am pleased to see this interest, but unfortunately it means I do not have time to talk to all the potential candidates. I have therefore put some more information here about what the successful candidate is likely to have in terms of experience and interest, and what the PhD might be like.

I will be looking for one PhD student only this year. I am worried that there will be some excellent but disappointed applicants, I can only apologise for this. However, there are plenty of other good projects within the department of clinical neurosciences, and at many other centres in the world - do not put all your eggs in one basket, and please apply for other programmes!

The project

The project is focused around neurodegenerative tauopathies, mainly Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and Corticobasal syndrome (tauopathies). Data will come from our own cohort in Cambridge, and from the ExPRESS rare disease node, which collects research data in atypical parkinsonian disorders from across the UK. Within these bounds, there are a number of different potential projects to use MRI data, potentially combined with clinical, genetic/metabonomic, and neuropathological data. The idea is to develop a better understanding of how different disease mechanisms interact, and to develop biomarkers for clinical and research use.

The successful candidate

Ideally, you will have some experience in neurodegenerative disorders, but this is not essential. Some experience with neuroimaging would also be helpful. What is more important is a familiarity with advanced statisical modelling, going slightly beyond typical linear regression. This might include structural equation modelling, Bayesian hierarchical modelling, machine learning methods, or similar. Dealing with and curating data will be a large part of this project, so some familiarity with comparable datasets would be helpful.

This is not solely a neuroimaging project, and it is not primarily a clinical project (although it is possible to gain some experience in seeing patients during the PhD).

The application process

Details about applying are on the postgrad department website. After the applications, there is a shortlisting process. I usually interview 4-5 people. Before the interview I will arrange a chat with the shortlisted candidates to discuss the interview and what might be asked. The interview involves a presentation, which should ideally cover some research you have done and how this might be relevant to the project.

The purpose of the interview is two-fold:

• to assess whether you are good enough for accepting onto the PhD programme
• to decide who to put forward for funding opportunities

The majority of PhD funding in the department is through the Cambridge Trust. This organisation matches a wide vvariety of funders with suitable candidates. For example, some funders only support people from a particular country or region. The Gates Scholarship is a separate process, with an earlier application deadline. I will only take candidates who have both been accepted onto the PhD programme and have secured funding through the Cambridge Trust or elsewhere.

I do not usually take self-funded PhD students.

The PhD and lab experience

Hopefully you get some sense of the lab from this website. We aim to do high level science, whilst at the same time enjoying our work. We are all enthusiastic about tackling neurodegenerative diseases, and it’s fair to say most of us are a bit geeky and have an unnatural enthusiasm for messing around with code and statistical models. If that sounds fun, then we could be the right lab for you!