Available PhD research projects
The following projects are not funded by Cardiff University, but are open to applicants who are self-funded or have external funding. Applications are accepted all year round.
Biomedicine
Title: The role of splice variants in regulating BRCA1 function
Supervisors: Professor Matt Smalley, Dr Helen Pearson and Dr Guisy Tornillo
Title: Regulation of asymmetric cell division in brain cancer stem cells
Supervisors: Dr Florian Siebzehnrubl and Dr Fernandi Anjos-Afonso
Title: Novel therapeutics in breast, pancreatic and colorectal cancers
Supervisors: Dr Richard Clarkson, Professor Andrew Westwell (Pharmacy) and Dr Andrea Brancale (Pharmacy)
Title: Investigating the link between prenatal adversity, placental endocrine dysfunction and maternal depression
Supervisor: Professor Ros John
Title: Characterisation of enhanced bacterial immunotherapy to treat colorectal cancer
Supervisor: Dr Lee Parry
Title: Impact of dietary components on the intestinal stem cell homeostasis and cancer risk
Supervisor: Dr Lee Parry
Title: The role of neural stem cells and new neurons in regulating energy homeostasis
Supervisor: Dr David Petrik
Title: Molecular mechanisms underlying the anti-atherogenic actions of natural products
Supervisor: Professor Dipak Ramji
Learn more about our biomedicine research.
Molecular biosciences
Title: Short and long-distance communication in cancer: Feedback regulation of Ras signalling in tumourigenesis and cachexia
Supervisor: Dr Fisun Hamaratoglu
Title: Making multiple sperm types in the same testis - Transcriptional control of sperm heteromorphy
Supervisor: Professor Helen White-Cooper
Title: Transcriptional regulation in Drosophila melanogaster testes
Supervisor: Professor Helen White-Cooper
Title: Better together: constructing engineered protein oligomers using synthetic biology
Supervisor: Professor Dafydd Jones
Title: Engineering biology for next-generation electronics: Building integrated bionanohybrid circuits by design.
Supervisor: Professor Dafydd Jones
Title: Simulations and analysis of DNA structure in relation to repair pathways
Supervisor: Dr Georgina Menzies
Title: Sensing local biomolecular environments with coherent optical nanoscopy
Supervisor: Professor Paola Borri and Professor Wolfgang Langbein (Physics)
Title: Shedding new light on single protein-lipid membrane interactions
Supervisors: Professor Paola Borri and Professor Wolfgang Langbein (Physics)
Title: Deciphering the role of the intracellular domains of P2X7 in coupling to downstream signalling
Supervisor: Dr Mark Young
Title: Understanding plant stress and senescence to reduce food waste and improve food security
Supervisors: Dr Hilary Rogers and Dr Carsten Muller
Title: Pollen-Pistil communication strategies during plant reproduction: Acceptance or Rejection
Supervisors: Dr Barend H. J. de Graaf
Learn more about our molecular biosciences research.
Organisms and environment
Title: Landscape ecology and genetics of Bornean species inhabiting a fragmented landscape
Supervisors: Dr Pablo Orozco-terWengel and Professor Benoit Goossens
Title: Landscape genomics and local adaptation in livestock species
Supervisors: Dr Pablo Orozco-terWengel
Title: Structure and function of insecticidal protein toxins
Supervisors: Professor Colin Berry
Learn more about our organisms and environment research.
Neuroscience
Title: A role for cholesterol metabolism in neurodevelopmental disorder
Supervisor: Professor Meng Li
Title: Identification of novel cortical interneuron regulators implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders
Supervisor: Professor Meng Li
Title: Modelling Setbp1 haploinsufficiency disorder using hESC derived neurons and cerebral organoid cultures
Supervisors: Professor Meng Li and Dr Lucia Cardo
Title: A10 dopamine neurons: the missing link in cell therapeutics for Parkinson's disease?
Supervisor: Dr Mariah Lelos
Title: Does reduction of wild-type huntingtin in the adult brain affect cognitive function?
Supervisor: Dr Mariah Lelos
Title: Understanding the role of impairment in the autophagy-lysosomal pathway in order to develop medications for post-viral neurological dysfunction
Supervisors: Dr Emyr Lloyd-Evans and Dr Helen Waller-Evans
Learn more about our neuroscience research.
Make your own research proposal
Our academic supervisors are open to applications from self-funding students. You can contact staff members from the relevant research division to discuss potential research proposals:
To apply for any of the PhD studentships, please visit our main PhD page.
