PhD Studentships

Post Status: Fixed-term Contract – Full-time 

Research Group / Department / School: Nakagome Lab, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine (https://shigekinakagomelab.com/) Cassidy Lab, Department of Genetics, School of Genetics and Microbiology (https://bioinf.gen.tcd.ie/hag/index.html) 

Location: Trinity Translational Medicine Institute Trinity Centre for Health Sciences Trinity College Dublin St James’s Hospital, Dublin 8, Ireland Smurfit Institute of Genetics Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin College Green, Dublin 2, Ireland 

Reports to: Shigeki Nakagome & Lara Cassidy 

Terms & Conditions: Stipend of €25,000 per annum and Tuition fees (EU and non-EU) for a 4-year PhD program

 Hours of Work: 39 hours per week, or as required

Post Summary 

We are seeking outstanding candidates for two fully funded PhD studentships to explore how natural selection has driven global disparities in disease susceptibility—through the powerful lens of ancient genomics. This project aims to generate a dense temporal transect of ancient human and pathogen genomes from archaeological sites across Japan, offering a unique opportunity to witness the human-pathogen arms race play out in real-time. One post will 2 focus on human demography and adaptation, reconstructing how population dynamics and natural selection have shaped genomic variation in response to infectious burdens. The other post will investigate the evolution of pathogens over time, uncovering how they have adapted to changing human hosts and environments. Crucially, these data from Japan will be analysed in tandem with a complementary genomic transect from Ireland, enabling comparative insights into how evolutionary history at the edges of Eurasia has shaped differences in disease risk. These studentships are ideal for candidates with a strong background in computational biology, bioinformatics, population genetics, and statistical genetics and an exceptional interest in uncovering the deep evolutionary roots of human health and disease.

Standard Duties and Responsibilities of the Post 

Each PhD student will lead an original and independent research project that will constitute the core of their doctoral thesis at Trinity College Dublin. The students will gain hands-on experience with cutting-edge techniques across the full research pipeline—from data generation to analysis—in both ancient and population genomics. This includes working in dedicated ancient DNA facilities and obtaining extensive training in the processing and analysis of high-throughput sequencing data. 

The students will be co-supervised by Drs. Shigeki Nakagome and Lara Cassidy and will work within a highly collaborative, interdisciplinary environment that brings together experts in archaeology, anthropology, and population and statistical genomics. They will actively engage in regular meetings, joint lab discussions, and collaborations with members of both the Nakagome and Cassidy research groups, as well as others working in ancient genomics at Trinity College Dublin. The students will also be expected to disseminate their findings through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at international conferences. 

The doctoral programme of Trinity College Dublin focuses on educating and training outstanding postgraduate students. The structured PhD programme has a sustained enrolment of national and international students of high capability, and a structured approach to advanced research. As part of the programme, all registered PhD students are required to complete taught modules that accrue in total a minimum of 10 ECT credits and up to a maximum of 30 ECT credits. Evidence of ECT credits accrued reflects the structured element to the TCD PhD programme. Postgraduate research students within TCD integrate closely and share learning experiences with postgraduate research students from cognate disciplines and fields in TCD.

Person Specification 

We are seeking highly motivated candidates with a strong academic background in population genetics, microbial genetics, human genetics, ancient genomics, statistics, and/or mathematics. The successful applicants will demonstrate a genuine interest in human evolutionary history and its implications for health and disease.

Qualifications 

• Applicants should hold, or expect to obtain, at minimum an upper second-class Honours Bachelor’s degree (2.1) or a Master’s degree in genetics, evolutionary biology, bioinformatics, computational biology, or a related field. 

• Demonstrated potential to independently plan, manage, and lead research projects. 

• Excellent written and oral communication skills, with the ability to contribute to scientific publications and present findings at conferences. 

• Strong motivation to acquire new skills and engage with both wet lab and computational aspects of ancient and population genomics.