PhD Studentship - Turning Off Transcription Factors to Understand what Happens First in Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Overview

This PhD project at the University of Exeter, hosted by the Department of Clinical and Biomedical Sciences, asks what goes wrong first in neurodevelopmental disorders. The student will use human stem cells to grow early brain cells and then rapidly switch off selected disease-linked transcription factors. By measuring the immediate effects on chromatin accessibility and gene activity with genomics approaches such as CUT&Tag and RNA-seq, the project aims to show how disrupted gene control leads to conditions including intellectual disability, autism, epilepsy and speech impairment.

The student will learn stem cell, genome editing and genomics methods while helping to answer a fundamental question about how human brain development goes wrong.

What you get

The project is one of up to 18 MRC-funded studentships offered through the GW4 BioMed3 Doctoral Landscape Programme, with a start date of October 2027. The studentships last four years. Funding covers UK tuition fees and a doctoral stipend matching the UK Research Council national minimum, which is 21,805 pounds per year for 2026/27 and is updated annually. Up to 5,000 pounds per year is also available for research training and support costs.

Who can apply

The studentships are open to UK and international students. This project competes for a place with projects across the whole MRC GW4 BioMed3 Doctoral Landscape Award, in which 18 studentships are available across the partnership.

Key dates

The closing date is 21 October 2026, and the studentship begins in October 2027.