Ref: EngSci-BIO-101
Deadline: Applications will be accepted at any time until the position is filled.
The successful candidate will work with a group of highly motivated, first class research students in a dynamic multi-disciplinary environment within the Institute for Life Sciences and multi-million pound mVIS CT facility with imaging applications across many sectors (engineering, biomedical, environmental).
Key to the development of cardio-metabolic disease are changes in the networks of small blood vessels (the microvasculature) that deliver nutrients to tissues such as muscle, heart and liver. Methods for analysing 3D micro-vascular structures are in their infancy, largely due to the difficulties in imaging, but also the lack of fast image analysis algorithms to segment, skeletonise and derive 3D statistics from the relevant images. Advances in micro-focus computed tomography (µ-CT) offers 3D quantification of vascular beds, in relatively large, opaque volumes: however exploiting this approach presents its own challenge, as significant image processing is required to extract maximum value from the data. The recently established ‘µ-VIS’ CT imaging centre provides vital technical and collaborative opportunities to progress vascular analysis, via state-of-the-art scanners and computational hardware.Â
The student will use high resolution computed X-ray tomography (microCT) along with state-of the-art imaged based modelling to characterise in 3 dimensions the microvascular networks architecture in whole tissue preparations from animal models of human cardio-metabolic disease. Fluid flow and solute transport modelling will be undertaken in order to predict the change in perfusion and oxygen status in the tissues being investigated.Â
The successful candidate will have the ability to work well with computers and use new software packages. Training in biology will be offered if the candidate does not have a biology background.Â
If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact to Dr Tiina Roose (Faculty of Engineering and the Environment (t.roose@soton.ac.uk) or Prof. Geraldine Clough (Faculty of Medicine) (g.f.clough@soton.ac.uk).