PhD Studentship: Role of Phage in Faecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT) for Clostridioides Difficile Infection

Overview:

• Location/Campus: College Lane, Hatfield
• Funding for: UK Home fees
• Funding amount: £19,237 per year

This funded 3-year PhD project from 1^st September 2025 at the University of Hertfordshire seeks to understand phage contribution to faecal microbiota transplant (FMT) treatment efficacy for patients with Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), through examining the microbiome of FMT donors and recipients. The project will involve patient recruitment, clinical and molecular microbiology, metagenomics, and phage biology.

CDI is a major cause of gastrointestinal infection in hospitals and its incidence in community settings is growing. Antibiotic treatment of primary CDI leads to recurring infection in about 25% of patients, and FMT with frozen stools from healthy donors is approved as a third line treatment for recurring CDI. FMT works by restoring the gut microbiota diversity with a relatively low risk of adverse side effects. However, effectiveness varies between patients, potentially due to microbiota interactions. One line of investigation is bacterial viruses (phages) within FMT material, which change the gut virome of CDI patients post transplantation. As phages interact with bacteria in the gut of the patient, including transferring genes between bacteria through transduction to confer new genetic traits that can re-shape gut health, we hypothesize phage transduction to be important in the efficacy of FMT. Methods for “transductomics” have been established, but not yet applied to FMT CDI samples. This programme aims to investigate the microbiota (including phages) and microbiome of FMT donors and recipients to understand bacterial and phage interactions in FMT patients that could predict efficacy. Patients from NHS Trusts will be recruited, and methods in clinical and molecular microbiology, metagenomics, and phage biology will be applied.

The project will be supervised by Dr Shan Goh, s.goh5@herts.ac.uk, Dr Jo Brooks-Warburton, johanne.brooks@nhs.net, and Dr Simon Baines, s.baines2@herts.ac.uk

The project requires applicants to have a strong interest in microbial interactions between phage and bacteria, background in microbiology, wet-lab experience and/or bioinformatics skills. Applicants must have, or be predicted to have a BSc in Biological Sciences or related disciplines, with First or Upper Second Class (2:1) honours. MSc by Research, or MSc in Biological Sciences or related disciplines, with First or Upper Second Class (2:1) is desirable.

Students of all nationalities who hold a BSc/MSc in a relevant discipline are eligible to apply. However, please note that the studentship only covers university fees at UK Home rate. Therefore, successful international applicants will be required to pay a portion of university fees plus associated costs for student visa and immigration health surcharge.

A completed application form and supporting documents (two academic references, qualification certificates and transcripts, a personal statement) should be emailed to the Doctoral College Admissions team by June 27th 2025. For international applicants from countries where English is not the official first language, please include evidence of a minimum IELTS score of 6.5. This could be waived if you have studied in the UK or in a mainly English-speaking country (e.g. USA or Australia) and hold a degree from one of those countries.

Interviews will take place 14^th July 2025

For informal enquires please email: s.goh5@herts.ac.uk.

Closing application date: June 27^th, 2025

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