Postgraduate community

Here at the Centre for Health and Life Sciences, we have a vibrant post graduate student community to whom we provide an exciting and supportive environment to pursue graduate studies. You will benefit from access to a world-class, health and life sciences laboratory environment with industry standard research and teaching facilities. You will become a part of a multi-professional team of renowned academics, researchers and clinicians.

Current students

• Current PhD students

  Name	Thesis Title	Director of Studies
  Peter Griffin	Modelling activation of the CGRP receptor	Professor Christopher Reynolds
  David Mutigwa	Cardiac injury miRNA profile in cancer patients treated with radiotherapy	Dr Hardip Sandhu
  Kayleigh Orchard	The molecular basis of human tendon pathologies: Studying both epigenetic and global gene expression profiles	Dr Stu Raleigh

• COVID-19 PhD Studentships

  Michael Fishwick	A study into improving virus-load measurement and preventing false negative in detection	Professor Sebastien Farnaud
  Jarod Zvartau Hind	Effect of Hypoxia on Macrophage Responses to Coronaviruses	Dr Bernard Burke
  Ludovico Pipito	Molecular modelling of SARS-CoV-2 – ACE2 interactions and drug discovery of potential disruptor	Dr Giuseppe Deganutti
  Mushidur Rahman	Novel echocardiography methods to quantify cardiac structural and functional implications of Covid-19	Professor Djordje Jakovljevic
  Roxana Rujan	Molecular Dynamics Applied To G Protein Coupled Receptors	Professor Christopher Reynolds
  Sophie Russell	Cardiovascular implications and physical activity in middle-age and older people with a history of Covid-19	Professor Djordje Jakovljevic
  Andrei Sandu	Virucidal activity of novel Nano-Engineered impregnated filters	Dr Phillip Gould
  Tal Weizmann	Novel approaches to the structure, allostery and drug binding of proteins relevant to SARS-Cov2 infection	Professor Christopher Reynolds
  Rory Williams	Novel Therapeutics to treat Covid-19	Dr Phillip Gould

• Industry funded studentships

  We support a range of co-funded PhD studentships for business. They provide financial support for collaborative projects by contributing matching funds for a research studentship, which covers the fees and living costs for the student and contributes to research costs.

  The project is developed by the business with support from the University. The industrial partner will have a highly motivated and qualified graduate student to undertake research that they, in collaboration with the supervising scientist, can direct to ensure all research goals are met.

  Clara Ferreira (part-time)	The Role of Somatostatin Receptors in the Treatment of Neuroendocrine Tumours	Professor Derek Renshaw	Abcam
  Alex Edward Georgiou (part-time)	Synovial fluid and its effects of mesenchymal stem cells	Dr Phillip Gould	Cell Therapy Sciences (CTS)
  Matthew Lamaudiere	Active Gut Microbiota; the missing link in treating colon cancer	Dr Igor Morozov	University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW)
  Adam Linekar	Understanding the excitation contraction coupling of human myocardium using the work loop assay	Professor Helen Maddock	InoCardia
  Daniel Ray	Bioleaching of Metals from Waste Printed Circuit Boards for Precious Metal Recovery and Reduced Toxicity	Dr Sebastien Farnaud	Network 2 Supplies Ltd (N2S)
  Patrick Tran	Optimisation and validation of inotropic afterload and preload responses of the human myocardium	Professor Helen Maddock	University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW)

• Trailblazer studentships

  The Centre has been successful in several Trailblazer Studentships which are co-funded from the doctoral college for CU researchers to undertake transformative, cross-disciplinary, cross-national, and cross-sector research.

  The calls are aligned to the University’s Research Strategy, the Global Challenges Research Fund, the Industrial Strategy, Stern and Dowling Reviews, and UK Research and Innovation’s Strategic Prospectus. The scheme supports Early-Career Researchers develop their research practice and work together as teams.

  Name	Thesis Title	Director of Studies
  Ahmed Abdelmageed Saad Elwakeel	The Role of NF-kBin Tumour-Associated Dendritic Cells	Dr James Bennett
  Jayini Thakore	The failure of oncometabolites to adapt the type 2 diabetic heart and kidneys to hypoxia	Dr Mike Dodd

• Joint international doctorates

  Coventry University have a number of Cotutelle PhD programmes with international universities.

  One of these is with Deakin University (Australia) which offer research students with an unparalleled international experience, working alongside world-class researchers across two continents. Cotutelle students start the programme at either Coventry or Deakin Universities depending on their chose project and spend one year at the partner institution. As a result, they gain unique exposure to different cultural and scientific environments and substantially increase their employability after graduation.

  Name	Thesis Title	Director of Studies
  Persefoni Andreou	Enhancing Metabolism by Targeting The Skeletal Muscle Epigenome In Metabolic Disease	Dr Mark Turner

   

  The University also has a Cotutelle arrangement with Stellenbosch University in South Africa and the Centre currently supporting two PhD students through this scheme:

  Name	Thesis Title	Director of Studies
  Gestel Kuyler	Polymers for G-Protein Coupled Receptor (GPCR) isolation and investigation	Professor Mark Wheatley
  Rebecca Murray	Using lipid nano-particles to study G-protein-coupled receptors	Professor Mark Wheatley

  Coventry University has been working with the Indonesian government to develop a programme to recruit PhD candidates who are funded by the Ministry of Research, Technology and HE (MoRTHE or often known as DIKTI in Bahasa) and Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA).

  The candidates are lecturers at colleges and universities across Indonesia, who are looking to upgrade their qualifications to doctoral level. This is part of a strategic drive to improve the Higher Education sector as a key enabler for human capital development. The Centre has been successful in securing one of the fully funded scholarships:

  Name	Thesis Title	Director of Studies
  Ratna Yuliani	Isolation and Characterisation of Active Antimicrobial Compounds from Longan Leaves (Dimocarpus longan) and in-vivo Studies of Their Antimicrobial Activity	Professor Sebastien Farnaud

• EU funded studentships

  Doctoral Training Alliance (DTA) Studentships

  Coventry is one of 15 universities in the UK to receive EU-funding as part of University Alliance’s Doctoral Training Alliance (DTA). The Centre has been successful is securing two of these prestigious awards. 

  The DTA is the UK’s largest doctoral training programme of its kind, was launched in 2015 to create a new model closely aligned to industrial strategy and priority challenges, producing industry-ready graduates. The training aims to produce independent, highly-employable researchers with expertise and skills in strategically-important research areas:

  Name	Thesis Title	Director of Studies
  Ayesha Judge	Investigating the multi-organ protective role of the incretin hormones	Dr Mike Dodd
  Saffron Peck	Identification and characterisation of vesicular and non-vesicular secretory proteins which lead to altered cell polarity dynamics	Dr Chris Mee

   

  In addition, the Centre has been awarded a prestigious DTA3/COFUND PhD Studentship which extends the existing doctoral training initiatives in Applied Biosciences for Health, Energy and Social Policy internationally, with the support of a grant from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie PhD Fellowship programme.

  Name	Thesis Title	Director of Studies
  Caroline Lozahic	CUAB02 - Adaptive mRNA processing mechanisms in the heart	Dr Hardip Sandhu