PhD opportunity: how does blood flow build blood stem cells?

(image generated with AI)

We are looking for a motivated candidate for a fully funded 4-year BBSRC-funded PhD project as part of the Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership (#MIBTP).

When the embryonic heart starts beating, the force of flowing blood does more than move cells around. It instructs the vessel wall to make blood stem cells, while telling neighbouring cells to sprout new vessels. How one mechanical cue produces two different fates from a single cell type is still an open question.

The project: decoding the gene regulatory network controlled by a flow-responsive transcriptional regulator acting as a molecular switch between vessel and blood stem cell identity. Techniques range from zebrafish genetics, CRISPR gene knockdown, live imaging and transgenesis, transcriptional profiling and computational approaches to building gene regulatory networks and data analysis.

What youll do: Build a computational network model to predict the gene regulatory network acting downstream of blood flow (with Dr Sascha Ott, University of Warwick); test the top candidates in vivo using CRISPR/Cas9 F0 screening and live confocal imaging in zebrafish embryos (Monteiro lab, University of Birmingham); Feed experimental results back into the model, so wet lab and computation shape each other throughout the project.

Ideal if youre curious about developmental biology, stem cells or systems biology, and want to work across experiment and computation.

Applicants will also benefit from professional placement and training opportunities as part of the MIBTP. Please check your eligibility and get in touch via email: r.monteiro@bham.ac.uk to discuss the opportunity and application process before applying.

Find out more about the programme and eligibility here, and the project here 

Two projects available:

As Primary supervisor - A mechanosensitive gene regulatory switch controlling blood stem cell identity

As co-supervisor - How Hematopoietic Transcription Factors and Epigenetic Coregulators Shape Gene Regulatory Networks in Immune Cell Development – Supervisor: Dr Tianyi Zhang