Via www.jobs.ac.uk. PSIBS Doctoral Training Centre at the University of Birmingham is offering the opportunity for MSc and PhD study at the interface between the different disciplines of chemical, physical, engineering and computer sciences and biomedicine, providing a career route for graduates to the imaging industry and pushing the boundaries of this field to improve health care.

A sample project: To use new classes of steroids, labelled with fluorescent metal centres and other fluorescent labels, to create probes that can be used to image the localisation of oestrogen, androgen and progesterone receptors in cells and in vivo in order to better understand the activity and levels of these receptors, especially in disease.

Background and Methodology: Sex hormones such as oestrogens and testosterone are of particular interest because of their importance in reproductive system cancers. Attempts to design probes for these proteins have primarily been focused on the oestrogen receptor and have relied mainly on radioactive oestrogen derivatives such as those containing tritium or technetium. Fluorescent probes that could be used to label these proteins in vivo would be a very powerful research tool as well as an attractive alternative for clinical diagnosis.

10 fully-funded EPSRC studentships (tax-free stipend of £13,590* per annum) are available for Home/EU students to begin this inter-disciplinary four-year programme in Biomedical Imaging in October 2012. Applications are open to students that have, or expect to obtain, a good 2:1 (Hons) or 1st class degree in a wide variety of different scientific disciplines including chemistry, physics, computer sciences, engineering and natural sciences. Applications will remain open until the places are filled. For more information, contact: [email protected], Tel: 0121 414 8808.

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