PhD researcher

Post Status: Fixed-term Contract– Full-time 

Research Group / Department / School: Inflammageing Research Group, Discipline of Medical Gerontology, School of Medicine, Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin 

Location: Trinity Translational Medicine Institute Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin St James’s Hospital Dublin 8, Ireland

Reports to: Prof Nollaig Bourke and Dr Matt McElheron 

Terms & Conditions: The studentship will provide an annual stipend (tax free) of €25,000 and fees will be paid at the EU rate, plus funding for consumable costs, training and conference attendance.

Hours of Work: Full time

Post Summary 

The resilience of the anti-viral immune system declines with age, yet there is significant heterogeneity in anti-viral immunity in older adults, resulting in diverse viral infection outcomes in this age group. Activation of type I interferon (IFN-I) responses are a fundamental component of innate anti-viral immunity, key for activation of early, direct anti-viral protection and later adaptive anti-viral immune responses, yet how, when and why these IFN-I responses decline with age is not well understood in human populations. 

This project aims to explore the nuances of IFN-I response activation and regulation during ageing by investigating how these responses change with differential ageing states (e.g. frailty states, rates of biological ageing etc.). This project will use approaches such as scRNA-seq, bulk RNA-seq, DNAm analysis, proteomics and clinical data integration to determine how IFN-I responses change during ageing. 

This project will be under the supervision of Prof Nollaig Bourke and Dr Matt McElheron and forms part of a larger, multi-disciplinary research programme with national and international academic and clinical collaborators.

Person Specification

Qualifications

A first-class or high upper second-class honours degree (2.1 or above) in a relevant discipline such as: genomic sciences, bioinformatics, computational biology, molecular biology, immunology, gerontology or a related biomedical or life science field.