EPSRC Doctoral Landscape Award Studentship: " Probing brain functions at scale for precise deep brain modulation”

Award details

Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a neurosurgical procedure that implants a device to deliver electrical impulses to specific brain areas to treat symptoms of neurological disorders including Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. While DBS has demonstrated significant clinical benefits in improving patients’ symptoms, the exact mechanism by which these electrical impulses modulate abnormal brain activity remains unclear.

The project aims to develop a 3D functional optical endomicroscopic imaging system to visualise brain functional activities in situ. The imaging system will exploit advanced fibre light field technology for snapshot 3D imaging of brain cells and single photon fluorescence imaging for detecting neural activity. By providing new measures of neural activity in response to the electrical stimulation in real time at both cellular level and circuit level, this system can be a powerful imaging tool to understand allow precise investigation of DBS mechanisms and optimise DBS therapy.

Award value

Each studentship is fully funded for 3.5 years. This includes tuition fees, stipend and generous project consumables.

• Stipend: Students will receive a tax-free stipend at the UKRI rate of £22,780 (AY 2025/26) per year as a living allowance.
• Research Training Support Grant (RTSG): A generous project allowance will be provided for research consumables and for attending UK and international conferences.
• Tuition fees: Home

Eligibility criteria

School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences

Postgraduate research

Bachelor's degree with 2:1 honours in Applied Mathematics / Mathematics, Optical engineering, Biomedical Engineering or another engineering-related discipline, Biomedical Sciences, Biomedical Optics, Medical Physics, Computer Science, Optics, Physics, Neuroscience, Neurophotonics, Neuroengineering.

A 2:2 degree may be considered only where applicants also offer a Master's degree with Merit or above.

Preference will be given to candidates with a background conducive to multidisciplinary research and preferably programming skills and lab experience.

We welcome eligible applicants from any personal background, who are pleased to join diverse and friendly research groups.

For information on our English language requirements and whether you need to complete an English language test, please see our English Language requirements page.

Award conditions

Candidates who meet the eligibility requirements for Home Fee status will be eligible to apply for this project. To be classed as a Home student, candidates must meet the following criteria:

• be a UK National (meeting residency requirements), or
• have settled status, or
• have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements), or
• have indefinite leave to remain or enter.

For exceptionally strong and competitive applications there is a possibility of support for international tuition fees.

Students must submit within the funding period (3.5 years) and must participate in training and cohort activities relevant to their PhD.

Application process

Please submit an application for the Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Science Research MPhil/PhD (Full-time) programme using the King’s Apply system. Please include the following with your application:

• A PDF copy of your CV should be uploaded to the Employment History section.
• A 500-word personal statement outlining your motivation for undertaking postgraduate research should be uploaded to the Supporting statement section.
• Funding information: Please choose Option 5 “I am applying for a funding award or scholarship administered by King’s College London” and under “Award Scheme Code or Name” enter DLA-YX. Failing to include this code might result in you not being considered for this funding.

Selection process

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend a formal interview.

Contact:

Please email: yijing.xie@kcl.ac.uk.