PhD – Combination treatment with advanced therapies and enteral nutrition in children with active Crohn’s disease

Project description

Crohn’s disease is an incurable inflammatory condition of the gut associated with high morbidity, poor quality of life and significant healthcare costs. The current treatment options for Crohn’s disease include nutrition and immunosuppressant drug-based therapies. Up to 60% of patients will initially respond to these therapies; however around 20% of them will lose response every subsequent year. Hence, there is a need to develop novel combination and andjuct therapies for more effective and long-lasting disease control.

Within a multicentre clinical trial, the PhD student will test nutritional therapies as an adjuvant to biological drug therapies to optimise treatment effectiveness, reduce disease activity and improve inflammatory markers in children with active Crohn’s disease. This PhD will also explore the effect of this novel combination therapy approach on host immune responses and the mediating role of habitual diet. This project may lead to the development of new, more potent and personalised, dietary therapies for children with Crohn’s disease.

This PhD opportunity is a collaboration between academics in the University of Glasgow, clinicians from 6 children hospitals across Scotland and Nestle Health Sciences, a major industrial partner specialised in the production of proprietary nutritional therapies for the management of Crohn’s Disease.

The student will be working in collaboration with another laboratory PhD student who will focus on the role of the gut microbiome in predicting responses to nutrition and drug-based therapies. The two students will be working in parallel, each with distinct individual objectives.

Candidates should have a 2:1, preferably with relevant experience in dietetics/nutrition (preferably clinical nutrition), nursing or another healthcare profession.

During the course of the PhD, the student will receive training in conducting and co-ordinating clinical trials, dietary assessment, clinical nutrition and dietetics, and clinical medicine. The student will work in partnership with the National Health Service. Dietary assessment will be performed using both conventional and novel dietary assessment methods. A panel of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines will be measured and a comprehensive immunophenotype of peripheral blood mononuclear cells will be performed.

The student will gain experience in cutting-edge research within a multidisciplinary team (School of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing) working at the interface of clinical medicine, nutrition, dietetics, food science, bioinformatics and laboratory based research.

The student will also be in close interaction with the industrial partner involved in this study and will exchange knowledge with them regularly, offering a unique industrial slant to this research post.

NOTE: Once you apply through the online portal, please forward your application reference number and CV to Konstantinos.gerasimidis@glasgow.ac.uk.

Funding Notes

This prestigious studentship covers tuition fees, an annual stipend in excess of the UKRI rate at £24,000 per year for 3.5 years of studies and a generous budget for study running costs. This studentship offers only Home fees for UK students or students who are eligible for Home fees (e.g. those with settled status or of Irish citizenship). Suitable students should have as a minimum an upper second-class honours BSc.