European Research Council funded PhD studentship: “Mapping liver metastases development with advanced MRI”

Award details

We are looking for a highly motivated PhD student to join Dr Andrada Ianus at the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences (first supervisor) and Dr. Po-Wah So at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (second supervisor). You will join a dynamic multi-disciplinary team with access to cutting-edge imaging facilities and world-renowned expertise.

You will work on an ERC Starting Grant funded project which aims to enable the detection and characterisation of liver micrometastases development in cancer, based on advanced MRI techniques, which combine recent developments in data acquisition and analysis strategies.

Your project specifically is focused on developing and applying advanced MRI techniques to study the development of liver metastases in small animal models on a state-of-the-art preclinical MR system. MRI data will be correlated with histological information to shed light on the links between the MRI biomarkers and tissue changes at the microscopic scale, informing future clinical translations.

The experimental part of this work will be based at the James Black Centre in the Denmark Hill Campus.

Application Deadline: 08/06/2025 (applications can be closed earlier if a suitable candidate is found).

Award value

This studentship is funded for 3 years. Funding includes a stipend and project consumables.

• Stipend: Students will receive a tax-free and generous stipend of £26,881 per year as a living allowance.
• Research Training Support Grant (RTSG): A budget will be provided for research consumables and for attending UK and international conferences.
• Tuition fees: Students are required to self-fund their tuition fees for 3 years using their stipend. The King’s tuition fees for 2025/26 are £7,500 (Home) and £32,400 (Overseas) and are expected to rise annually with inflation by up to 7%.
• Other (please outline): For Overseas students, please be advised that any UK Visa and NHS Surcharge fees will need to be financed in full by the offer holder as part of the UK visa application process.

Eligibility criteria

School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences

Postgraduate research

Bachelor's degree with 2:1 honours in Applied Mathematics / Mathematics, Biochemistry, Biology, Biomedical Engineering or another engineering-related discipline, Biomedical Sciences, Chemistry, Computer Science, Medicine, Physics

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. Wet lab experience is desirable, but not mandatory.

We welcome eligible applicants from any personal background, who wish 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.

Both Home and Overseas candidates are eligible to apply for this project.

Award conditions

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 ERC-AI. Failing to include this code might result in you not being considered for this funding.

Application process

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend a formal interview.

Selection process

Contact:

Please email: andrada.ianus@kcl.ac.uk.