PhD Studentship in Paediatric Brain Tumour Research - Integrative Multi-omic Analyses of Childhood Medulloblastoma for Improved Personalised Therapies

Award Summary

100% of home tuition fees paid and living expenses £21,000p/a. Significant additional funding to cover research costs.

Overview

Are you interested in using contemporary ‘omics approaches to uncover clinically-relevant biology in medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumour in children?

You will join our Childhood Brain Tumour Research Group, an internationally-recognised translational research team at the cutting-edge of childhood brain tumour research. This PhD project will contribute to our biomarker discovery programme which focuses on developing better therapies/diagnostics, and tailoring therapy to each patient (risk-stratification).

Investigations of the most contemporary European clinical trial of standard and favourable-risk medulloblastoma, SIOP-PNET5-MB (2014-2021; n=394), and its associated biological materials offer unique opportunities to address major unmet clinical and translational needs in the disease. We hypothesise that integration of genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic and proteomic datasets developed from this trial will enable the identification of novel disease-risk groups, biomarkers and superior risk-stratification models. You will therefore undertake integrated analyses of tumour and host biology in medulloblastoma patients from SIOP-PNET5-MB and use these to determine (i) disease outcomes, (ii) clinico-molecular correlates, (iii) groups suitable for therapy-adaptation, and (iv) targets and opportunities for novel therapies.

You will benefit from being part of the NU Centre for Cancer, the focus of research excellence in translational cancer research at Newcastle with an annual research income of ~£10m and >400 personnel, including over 60 post-graduate research students.

Number of awards: 1

Start date: October 2025

Award duration: 4 years

Sponsor: Cancer Research UK Newcastle Cancer Centre

Supervisors

Dr. Stacey Richardson, Staff Profile | Faculty of Medical Sciences | Newcastle University

Professor Steve Clifford, Staff Profile | Faculty of Medical Sciences | Newcastle University

Dr. Debbie Hicks, Staff Profile | Faculty of Medical Sciences | Newcastle University

Eligibility criteria

A 2:1 honours degree, or international equivalent, in a relevant subject. A Masters with strong research training element would be highly advantageous.

If your first language is not English you need an overall IELTS score of 6.5 (at least 5.5 in all sub-skills) or equivalent language qualification.

International applicants will be required to fund the difference between home and international fees for every year of the studentship. You may require an ATAS (Academic Technology Approval Scheme) clearance certificate prior to obtaining their visa and to study on this programme.

How to apply

You must apply through the University’s Apply to Newcastle Portal

In ‘Course choice’ tab, put ‘Postgraduate Research’ in 'Type of Study', ‘Full Time’ in ‘Mode of Study’, ‘2025’ in ‘Year of Entry’, code ‘8440F’ in ‘Course Title’, blank in ‘Research Area’. Press ‘Search’, select ‘PhD Translational and Clinical Research (FT)’, and save selection.

Either upload a document or write into ‘Personal Statement’. Put code ‘TC109’ in ‘Studentship/Partnership Reference’. When prompted for research proposal, select ‘Write Proposal’. Type in the title of the research project from this advert. A research proposal is not required. You can also upload a covering letter and CV, please state how your interests and experience relate to the project.

You must submit one application per studentship, you cannot apply for multiple studentships on one application.

Contact details

Dr Stacey Richardson stacey.richardson@ncl.ac.uk

Professor Steve Clifford steve.clifford@ncl.ac.uk

Dr Debbie Hicks debbie.hicks@ncl.ac.uk

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