Position title: PhD Project: Bioinformatics analysis of tertiary phase glial in preterm brain injury

Employer: RMIT University

Closing date: 28 February 2022

Brief position description: Permanent brain injury in babies can result from exposure to an inflammatory insult combined with being born preterm (<37 of 40 weeks’ gestation). Over their lifetime, these infants frequently struggle in academic and social settings due to cognitive and social deficits linked to their brain injuries. It is known that the cellular reactivity, termed the tertiary phase of injury persists into childhood and adolescence after early brain injury and is also observed after multiple other forms of brain injury. These changes involve dysfunction of astrocytes and microglia and sensitises the brain to further injury. By identifying these changes creates opportunities for novel therapeutic development.

This project would add to this field of research by identifying the signature of injury in a mouse model of preterm inflammatory brain injury. This would involve the bioinformatic analyses of novel RNA-seq data for cell-specific and temporal changes in a mouse model of human development and the thorough integration of existing data. Network exploration for pathway involvement in known pathways of cell function regulation will be key in identifying the nature of the changes. The identified glial signature will be validated at gene and protein levels in this lab to confirm and validate findings.

The preferred PhD candidate will have completed an Honours or Masters in bioinformatics, biostatistics, molecular biology, computer science, or a related discipline, and have a keen interest in neurobiology and development. This PhD position is supported by a scholarship.

Job website: https://www.rmit.edu.au/research/research-degrees/find-a-project

Contact name: Alice Johnstone

Contact email: alice.johnstone@rmit.edu.au