PhD in Direct Sequencing Of Nucleic Acids

There have been 281 million cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in Europe alone./nDiagnosis of respiratory tract infections is challenging despite them being one of the most common reasons for seeking healthcare, and one of the most common reasons for antibiotic prescription./nNovel, rapid, point-of-care, precise and easily interpreted diagnostic tools are required to tackle this challenge./nDirect sequencing of nucleic acids from patient samples can be rapid, precise and is pathogen agnostic./nChallenges remain however in standardisation, application and interpretation of the data generated and that’s where this project comes in./nYou’ll be applying metagenomic bioinformatics techniques to respiratory samples and developing analysis and interpretation approaches that facilitate decisive clinical and public health decision making./nLocation: Birmingham. Supervised by Dr Michael Cox (UoB), Dr Meera Chand (UKHSA), Dr David Cleary (UoB), Dr Dhruv Parekh (UoB) and Dr Miruna David (UHB).