Project Code MRCNMH26Ex Guo Project Type Wet lab Research Theme Neuroscience and Mental Health Project Summary Download Summary This project aims to uncover how early human immune cells, especially microglia (the brain’s immune cells), form during development. Since studying human…
Investigating the role microRNAs play in the pathophysiology of Huntington’s disease and whether they could be targeted therapeutically
Project Code MRCNMH26Ex Lunnon Project Type Wet lab Research Theme Neuroscience and Mental Health Project Summary Download Summary Huntington’s disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by a CAG expansion in the HTT gene, with age of onset influenced by…
Epigenetic profiling in Parkinson’s disease: novel mechanisms and drug targets
Project Code MRCNMH26Ex Migdalska-Richards Project Type A particular strength of this project is that it combines both wet-lab work (microRNA profiling, cell culturing and transfection) and bioinformatics, allowing the student to acquire a valuable combination of skills that will be…
Can supporting cells of the brain help to treat Alzheimer’s disease?
Project Code MRCNMH26Ex Noble Project Type Wet lab Research Theme Neuroscience and Mental Health Project Summary Download Summary Tau tangles accumulate mainly in neurons in Alzheimer’s disease brain. We recently found that blocking inflammatory signals in non-neuronal cells caused a…
Neuronal Clues to Astrocytes: Uncovering Hidden Mechanisms in the Developing Brain
Project Code MRCNMH26Ex Oguro-Ando Project Type Wet lab Research Theme Neuroscience and Mental Health Project Summary Download Summary How do neuronal signals drive astrocyte-mediated changes in brain development? This project will investigate the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms by which…
Explaining the elusive first step in neurodegenerative diseases by solving the structures of disordered proteins in physiological environments
Project Code MRCNMH26Ex Phillips Project Type Wet lab Research Theme Neuroscience and Mental Health Project Summary Download Summary Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, are strongly linked to the aggregation of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). However, the precise triggers and…
Risk vs. Protection: How Microglia Shape Neuronal Survival in Alzheimer’s disease
Project Code MRCNMH26Ex Piers Project Type Wet lab Research Theme Neuroscience and Mental Health Project Summary Download Summary Genetic variants in TREM2 and PLCG2 alter microglial responses in Alzheimer’s disease, but the consequences on neurons remain unclear. This project will…
Using machine learning to classify microglia
Project Code MRCNMH26Ex Richards Project Type One of the chief advantages of this proposed project is that it intimately combines both theoretical work (including mathematics, programming, image analysis and machine learning) with wet-lab work (including cell culture and time-lapse imaging).…
Functional analysis of novel rare coding variants for schizophrenia using zebrafish
Project Code MRCNMH26Ex Ryu Project Type Wet lab Research Theme Neuroscience and Mental Health Project Summary Download Summary Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder with debilitating effects on a patient’s quality of life. Because current medications do not work well,…
Exploiting novel lipid binding proteins to tackle neurological disorders
Project Code MRCNMH26Ex Schrader Project Type Wet lab Research Theme Neuroscience and Mental Health Project Summary Download Summary Successful applicants will join a dynamic, multi-disciplinary research project at the forefront of molecular cell biology, neurobiology, and lipid biochemistry. This cutting-edge…