PhD projects in Biology and Biophysics
Research in this area is quite varied. It includes population dynamics, disease modelling, neurobiology, biological fluid flows and molecular motors. More details, including staff members working in this area, can be found on the biology and biophysics pages.
Below are some examples of PhD projects in biology and biophysics. Alternative projects might be formulated following discussions with individual staff members, just contact the staff member or PhD admissions tutor Dr Gianne Derks
Mathematics of Storytelling (Supervisor: Dr Rebecca Hoyle)
How do oral histories, tales that encode some part of a community's history or shared culture, spread and persist? Can we model this mathematically, perhaps using an agent-based approach, where we create individuals, give them attributes and behaviours and link them together in an evolving social network? I'd like to find out, perhaps using the evolution of children's nursery rhymes as an example. This project would involve researching the history and geographical distribution of nursery rhymes and attempting to build a model that can reproduce a similar pattern of spread. It would suit a Maths or Computing Science graduate with an interest in social science and some programming skills who is comfortable with an open-ended and exploratory approach in the initial stages.
Molecular Motors (Supervisor: Dr Rebecca Hoyle)
Molecular motors are proteins that transform chemical energy into
mechanical work on a molecular level, generating forces and leading
to motion. We are studying myosin V, a motor involved in intracellular
transport in animal cells. It has two heads that bind to an actin filament
and a long neck that attaches to its cargo, such as vesicles and
organelles. The myosin molecule walks hand-over-hand along the actin
track via the coordinated binding and release of its heads. We have used
energetics to model the interaction of external load and intramolecular
strain with the ATP hydrolysis cycle that drives the stepping action,
and performed a detailed quantitative fit to experimental data.
Possible PhD projects include: applying the same methodology to a variety
of other molecular motors to determine how well the established models
compare with experimental data, and how the evolved physical characteristics
of the motors relate to their biological function. This is interdisciplinary
work in an exciting and fast-moving area of biophysics. An enthusiasm
for learning about biophysics and communicating with experimentalists
is essential. This project would suit a graduate in Applied Maths or
Physics, or possibly a Biology graduate with strong quantitative skills.
Programming skills are needed to adapt existing codes.
Chaotic Advection in Large Airways (Supervisor: Prof Peter Hydon)
Babies who are born very prematurely usually need mechanical help to breathe. One particularly effective type of mechanical ventilator uses High Frequency Ventilation (HFV), in which a low volume of air is delivered to the lung at a frequency of 10-15 Hz. However the volume of air used is so small that the conventional theory of breathing does not explain how adequate gas transport can be achieved. It has recently been shown that a type of stirring called`chaotic advection' greatly enhances transport in small airways. The purpose of this project is to find out the extent to which chaotic advection operates in the large airways, and thus to develop strategies for obtaining the best possible transport at various frequencies. This project combines mathematical biology, dynamical systems theory and computational fluid dynamics. It is of direct relevance to medicine, and the student will have the opportunity to work with some of the UK's leading medical specialists in HFV.
