Salary: £38,000 per annum

• Do you want to work across disciplines, drawing on shared expertise from physics, biology and medicine?
• Do you want exposure to cutting edge approaches to imaging technology development and application from leading academic and industry collaborators?
• Do you want to work on a cutting edge project as part of a cohort of exceptional scientists?
• Do you want to train for a PhD in a truly innovative research program?

This is a unique and exciting opportunity to participate in a European project entitled PHOQUS: PHOtonic tools for Quantitative imaging in tissUeS. This 3-year PhD programme is a new, highly innovative scheme to train postgraduate students as truly interdisciplinary scientists at the interface between physics / photonics and live imaging methodologies in life sciences and medicine.

PHOQUS will utilise the world-class extensive expertise in Life Sciences, pioneering surgical / image interventional technologies and nanomedicine within the Medical School and advanced Photonics at the University of Dundee to deliver an Innovative interface science Doctoral Training Program directed at the development and application of novel imaging modalities to enable the in-vivo quantitative investigation of biological processes from the molecular and cellular to the tissue and organ level scale. The training programme will lead automatically to advances and new knowledge on how to harness these new technologies and new strategies. PHOQUS will benefit from the close involvement of Industrial and Academic Partners from across Europe who will provide academic and commercial expertise as well as training for key aspects of the programme.

The PHOQUS research programme will train 13 early stage researchers – see below for details of the PhD projects. Each of the projects will involve short term secondments to one or more of the Industrial and Academic Partners.

Project Titles: 

1. Compact femtosecond lasers for multiphoton imaging (Supervisors: Prof Edik Rafailov & Dr Sam Swift)
2. Visible tuneable lasers for Confocal Microscopy (Supervisors: Dr Sam Swift & Prof Edik Rafailov)
3. High strength photonic tweezers (Supervisors: Dr David McGloin & Prof Kees Weijer)
4. In vivo imaging by Quantum Dots and other nanoparticles (Supervisors: Prof Sir Alfred Cuschieri & Prof Edik Rafailov)
5. Super-Resolution Analysis of the Human Mitotic Spindle (Supervisors: Prof Jason Swedlow & Dr David McGloin)
6. Mechanisms ensuring proper kinetochore-microtubule interaction (Supervisors: Prof Tomo Tanaka & Dr David McGloin)
7. Nuclear Dynamics with FLIM interaction (Supervisors: Dr Mike MacDonald & Prof Angus Lamond)
8. High speed LSFM (Supervisors: Prof Kees Weijer & Dr Mike MacDonald)
9. Developmental tissue dynamics using Non-diffracting LSM (Dr Mike MacDonald & Prof Kees Weijer)
10. Analysis of gut dynamics in health and disease (Prof Inke Näthke & Prof Sandy Cochran)
11. Terahertz imaging of tissue dynamics (Prof Edik Rafailov & Prof Sir Alfred Cuschieri)
12. Cardiovascular Diagnostics (Dr Faisel Khan & Prof Edik Rafailov)
13. Multi-wavelength in-vivo tissue analysis in Drug discovery (Dr Kevin Read & Prof Edik Rafailov)

For further details on each of the projects, please visit www.phoqus.eu.

Summary of Skills, Experience and Qualifications:

Applicants should have a good first degree and less than 4 years' research experience prior to the point of recruitment. Candidates with a PhD will not be eligible for this position.

Candidates should have a first degree in either the life or medical sciences, or physics and engineering with a keen interest in working at the interface between disciplines. Experience or understanding of the development of imaging techniques for biological imaging or the development of novel approaches to imaging would be an advantage. The successful applicant will be expected to work towards the award of a PhD with the University of Dundee.

This is a full-time fixed-term contract for 3 years commencing June – August 2014.

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