PhD Studentship - University of Portsmouth
FULLY FUNDED PHD STUDENTSHIP IN ZEBRAFISH BEHAVIOURAL GENETICS AVAILABLE!!
Drug addiction is characterised by an aberrant, persistent seeking and taking of a drug even in the face of increasing damage to the individual’s physical and psychological well-being, and often associated social or familiar challenges. It is becoming clear from experimental animal models that individuals that show high levels of ‘impulsivity’ are more likely to escalate to ‘compulsive’ drug seeking. Although we are beginning to characterise the cellular and neuroanatomical basis of addiction, we are still some way from understanding the individual variability in susceptibility to this shift from impulsivity to compulsivity. Identifying genetic factors involved, and how these are modulated by specific environmental influences, may facilitate understanding of the contributing mechanisms, thereby enabling more effective personalised treatment and persistent abstinence.
This PhD project will be based in the recently established laboratory of Dr Matt Parker, and will use zebrafish as a model species. The student will be responsible for running a project designed to test the hypothesis that stress will interact with genotype to affect the shift from impulsive to compulsive behaviour. They will use a recently discovered mutant line that shows high levels of nicotine preference. This will be based primarily in the schools of Health Sciences and Social Work (SHSSW) and Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Portsmouth, although the project will be a collaboration with Dr Caroline Brennan at Queen Mary University of London. This multidisciplinary project will be conducted within our extensive laboratory space and spans a broad range of biological sciences including, but not limited to: behavioural genetics, molecular psychiatry, neuroscience and neurophysiology. The successful student will have a background in molecular genetics or behavioural neuroscience (with a molecular component).
The student will have access to a vast array of training resources available at through the Graduate School at the University of Portsmouth including those geared toward improving presentation skills, time-management and project organisation skills, reviewing literature, thesis writing, data analysis and statistics, and other various related training modules.
Funding Notes
A limited number of these highly competitive PhD studentships are available as part of the Investing in Future Research and Impact scheme at the University of Portsmouth. Successful candidates will be offered a fully funded PhD bursary studentship to start in October 2016, on a full time basis for up to four years.
More details:
https://www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=73335&LID=1301
About the lab:
Lab website: www.parker-lab.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011043075277
PI’s Research Profile: http://tinyurl.com/ow9qkhh