Graduate Training in the Centre for Reproductive Health. Postgraduate training opportunitiesTraining opportunities in the Centre for Reproductive Health (CRH) include a one year MSc by Research in Reproductive Sciences, PhD Studentships in Reproductive Health and associate MD research programmes.For general enquiries: Email Aga Wysocka, Postgraduate AdministratorThe normal route for direct entry at PhD level is through one of the PhD studentships advertised on www.FindaPhD.com when available.Applications for studentships for science graduates wishing to pursue a career in Reproductive Health Sciences will be advertised when available. Applicants are expected to have a good honours degree in the sciences (biological, chemical or physical), at least UK level of 2.1 or the equivalent from non-UK universities. A Master’s degree in a relevant subject would be an advantage.Available PhDsEASTBIO (College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine) Visualising oocyte inside-out: developing a non-invasive imaging tool to assess oocyte qualityApplications accepted up till Monday 15th December, 2025. Competition funded PhD Project. Supervisors: Dr Chih-Jen Lin (The University of Edinburgh), Dr Pierre O. Bagnaninchi (The University of Edinburgh)About the ProjectApproximately one in seven couples have difficulty conceiving. It is widely accepted that one of the major factors contributing to female infertility is oocyte quality resulting from either misregulated (epi)genetic mechanisms during oogenesis or due to maternal ageing. Despite Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART) being routinely carried out in IVF clinics, an accurate, non-invasive predictor for selecting high-quality oocytes and predicting embryonic/pregnancy outcome is still lacking. The aim of this project is to develop a non-invasive tool for screening and selecting oocytes with the highest competency.This project has been conceived by the interdisciplinary collaboration of the Lin and Bagnaninchi labs. The Lin lab has generated a new Cabin1 infertile mouse line. Mutant oocytes show developmental incompetence and importantly, fertilised mutant oocytes generate abnormal single-pronucleus zygotes, a phenotype we recently showed is likely conserved in human. Thus, our animal model provides an excellent translational model for studying oogenesis and early embryogenesis (Smith et al., 2021 Reproduction and 2022 Development). The Bagnaninchi lab has developed a novel optical methodology for 3D measurement of biomechanical properties, Optical Coherence Elastography (OCE). Our recently published result showed that incompetent Cabin1 mutant oocytes exhibited a distinct profile when compared to the controls (Mason et al., 2023 Communications Biology).In this project, we aim to further optimise our OCE imaging platform and apply new methods (e.g. Quantitative Phase Imaging (QPI)) to expand their application that can be used to determine oocyte quality from incompetent and ageing oocytes. We have established oocyte culture conditions enabling us to generate aged mouse oocytes in vitro. These “artificially aged” oocytes reveal key ageing features. We will use this as an additional model to monitor the temporospatial changes during oocyte ageing which will allow us to generate data for a standard curve which mimics the ageing process. Moreover, we will apply state-of-the-art Single Cell Proteomic technology (with Alex Von Kriegsheim, IGC) on oocytes to profile the global protein expression and aim to identify the regulatory proteins which associated with the changes of biomechenical properties (e.g. cytoskeleton organisation, preliminary data).Overall, this proposal could lead to novel non-invasive ways to predict developmental competency which will potentially be beneficial for IVF applications. Funding NotesUKRI-funded studentships are open to students worldwide and will cover tuition fees at the UK rate, plus a stipend to support living costs and an annual research grant of £5,000 for the first three years of the PhD research. The proportion of international students appointed through the EASTBIO DTP is capped at 30%. All students must meet the eligibility criteria as outlined in the UKRI guidance on UK, EU and international candidates. This guidance should be read in conjunction with the UKRI Training Grant Terms and ConditionsApply Now EASTBIO Webpage (to download the documents required for email application process, detailed below) EASTBIO ApplicationEquality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) surveyReference Forms can be downloaded via link abovePlease send your completed EASTBIO Application Form and EDI survey along with a copy of your academic transcripts to awysocka@exseed.ed.ac.uk before the deadline. You should also ensure that two references have been sent to awysocka@exseed.ed.ac.uk by the deadline using the EASTBIO Reference Form.For research or project-related queries, please reach out directly to the supervisors. For inquiries about the application process, contact the postgraduate administrator.The EASTBIO team will run a series of 1-hour online sessions in November/December 2025, open to applicants who have queries about the application process. Please view EASTBIO How to Apply webpage for details. Unfortunately due to workload constraints, we cannot consider incomplete applications.Examples of ongoing projectsElucidating the relationship between the neonatal cerebral connectome and immune dysregulation in preterm infantsImpact of maternal stress on offspring immune development and later life health and diseaseDefining the impact of endometriosis on immune-vascular remodelling in pregnancy MSc by Research in Reproductive SciencesMSc places are available to science graduates wishing to pursue a career in Reproductive Health Sciences with a view to continuing to a PhD. Applicants are expected to have a good honours degree in the sciences (biological, chemical or physical), at least UK level of 2.1 or the equivalent from non-UK universities.MSc by Research in Reproductive SciencesOur MSc programme on www.findmasters.comDoctor of MedicineStudying with usThe pages linked below provide further details on how we run our postgraduate programmes.A guide for postgraduate students Supervision and StudyInformation for current postgraduate supervisors and students [EASE login required] This article was published on 2024-09-10
