AZ Funded Non-clinical PhD Studentship (Fixed Term)

Applications are invited for 4-year PhD studentship (starting October 2025) based in the University of Cambridge's Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit and the new AstraZeneca Discovery Centre at Cambridge. The student will be working on a collaborative project entitled "Partitioning the effects of high body mass index on risk of future comorbidities", jointly supervised by Dr Samuel Lambert (Assistant Professor of Health Data Science, University of Cambridge) and Dr Xiao Jiang (Senior Data Scientist, Centre for Genomics Research, AstraZeneca). 

High body mass index (BMI) is a highly prevalent modifiable risk factor for many cardiometabolic and renal diseases, but also multiple cancers and neurodegenerative disorders. BMI remains a crude measure of risk as not all people with high BMI get all possible comorbidities. This motivates research into the possibility of predicting which specific comorbidities of high BMI (obesity) an individual is most likely to develop. 

The project will harness large-scale human genetic resources with deep phenotyping data (e.g., UK Biobank, INTERVAL, BELIEVE) to interrogate the molecular aetiology of BMI and identify discrete axes of risk that may inform more personalized medicine and identify therapeutic targets. The student will employ genomic and computational approaches (e.g. GWAS, polygenic scores, Mendelian randomization, machine learning methods) integrating genetic data, health records, and multi-omics data from blood. 

Applicants should hold (or have achieved by the start date) a first or upper second-class degree from a UK university, or an equivalent standard from an overseas university, and preferably a Master's degree (or equivalent), in a relevant subject (e.g. epidemiology, (bio)statistics, genomics, bioinformatics). They should have strong quantitative skills, experience with programming (e.g., R, Python, etc), and enjoy working in a team environment. 

Full funding covering the University Composition Fee (home tuition and college fees) and a stipend of £21,500 per annum are provided for the 4-year studentship. 

The student will primarily be based in the BHF Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit (CEU, https://www.phpc.cam.ac.uk/ceu/) at the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart and Lung Research Institute (HLRI, https://www.hlri.cam.ac.uk/). The HLRI is across the road from AstraZeneca, allowing for work across both sites. The student will benefit from a collaborative environment that promotes equality, diversity and inclusion, and values all individuals. There are no coursework requirements, but taught modules and lectures in relevant subjects are available within the CEU and wider University.

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