Projects for Round 3 of recruitment for October 2026 start are open for applications. Round 3 is open to Home Fee Status applicants only.
Many animals rely on beneficial microbes for nutrition, defence, or reproduction. In this project, the student will explore an exciting new dimension of these relationships: how microbes influence animal behaviour.
The diversity of RNA structure is wide and varied, from hairpins and bulges through to triplex and quadruplexes. These structures are able to control numerous biological functions from sensing messenger compounds to dictating whether genes are switched on or off.
Every year fungal pathogens destroy 10–23% of all major calorie and commodity crops. Traditionally, to limit fungal disease outbreaks resistance genes have been introgressed into crops, which is a slow process, and the resistance conferred is frequently overcome through emergence of new pathogen races