Opportunities
Fully Funded 4-Year PhD Studentship Available (Deadline: 3 January 2025)
We are currently recruiting a new team member to undertake a 4-year PhD studentship in our computational biology lab. Your research will focus on uncovering the mechanism of action of currently used anti-malarial drugs by mapping DNA damage and genome replication with artificial intelligence and long-read DNA sequencing. This project will be highly collaborative with Professor Catherine Merrick’s parasitology laboratory and the successful candidate will have the opportunity to learn, or improve upon, software engineering in Python/C/C++, GPU computing, deep learning with TensorFlow, the design of artificial neural networks, and the processing and management of large datasets. Interested candidates are welcome to contact Michael Boemo (mb915@cam.ac.uk) for an informal discussion to find out more about the research project, the lab, and the exciting research environment that the University of Cambridge can offer. Please note that due to restrictions by the funder, this studentship is only open to candidates who qualify for home fee status.
We have hosted undergraduates for summer research projects every year since the lab opened and mentoring our summer students is one of the highlights of our year. Our students have come from universities around the world and have gone on to be very successful in master's programmes, PhD programmes, and other career pathways after their time with us.
What you can expect from an undergraduate summer studentship
Summer studentships last approximately 8 weeks over the summer months and you will be an important member of our team of computational scientists. Our summer projects cover a wide array of topics from AI to mathematical modelling and our students have used these methodologies at the cutting edge of cancer and malaria therapeutics. Your day-to-day will consist of writing code and analysing data in our computational lab space, participating in team meetings and journal clubs, interacting with collaborators around the world, and enjoying all that Cambridge has to offer in the summer months.
Mentorship and career development
During your studentship, you will have a mentor who will teach you computational skills and help you with your project in a supportive and friendly research environment. In addition to training in programming, data analysis, and high-performance computing, we provide our summer students with extensive career mentorship. Students will be offered a career development meeting with the PI where we discuss your career goals and interests in order to chart a roadmap towards achieving these goals. We also provide mentorship on CV writing, application writing, and scientific communication.
Support that lasts after the studentship ends
We're committed to supporting you all the way through your training. Summer students are always welcome to come back to the lab for career support and practice interviews. Many students take us up on our offer (sometimes years after they have left the lab) and we're glad that they do; it's an important part of how we support our students in the long term.
Meet some of our current and former summer students
Your academic background
Any undergraduate student who is interested in computational biology, interested in what we do, and wants to learn more. While some of our summer students join us with some mathematical/computational skills, for many others it will be their first experience writing code.
When to apply
Most deadlines for summer programmes are in early spring. Applicants are therefore encouraged to express their interest in or before February for a project that coming summer.
How to apply
Interested students should Email Michael Boemo with a recent CV, a brief description of their academic background, and a brief description of their motivation for joining the lab.
Programmes