PHD Studentship, Analytics, Environmental & Forensics

Organisation/Company KINGS COLLEGE LONDON Research Field Biological sciences Chemistry Researcher Profile Recognised Researcher (R2) First Stage Researcher (R1) Country United Kingdom Final date to receive applications 26 Nov 2026 - 00:00 (UTC) Type of Contract Permanent Job Status Full-time Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Revolutionising Infection Diagnosis Through Targeted Radiometal Imaging

Background of the Project:

People with conditions like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, organ transplants, or immunodeficiencies face higher risks of infection, complications, and death. Prompt and accurate diagnosis is vital to improve outcomes in these vulnerable groups. However, clinical diagnosis of microbial infections is often challenging, and noninvasive methods tend to perform poorly. Existing lab techniques typically require invasive sample collection, followed by time-consuming culture and antibiotic resistance testing.

These methods delay results and lack real-time monitoring to assess disease burden or pinpoint the infection site. Imaging tools that specifically target pathogens are highly sought after to improve noninvasive infection diagnosis and localisation. Currently, no clinical imaging test can reliably distinguish infections from inflammation or malignancy or differentiate between bacterial and fungal infections.

Emerging research is exploring radiometals conjugated with targeting molecules forin vivoimaging of infections via PET or SPECT. These agents can also be linked to therapeutics, enabling combined diagnosis and targeted antimicrobial treatment (theranostics)—offering a promising tool in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

At King’s College London, in collaboration with clinicians as well as scientists from UKSHA, we have set up a unique facility to develop radiotracers (conjugating radiometals with different targeted molecules) and to evaluate them biologicallyin vitroandin vivo. We work closely with clinicians, King’s translational and King’s IP & Licensing team. Our team has expertise in working with industry to develop radiopharmaceutical kits.

What we offer:

We are offering an exciting and ambitious PhD research opportunity to explore different molecules/targets to develop infection-specific radiotracers and navigating their clinical translation.

Depending on the project choice/previous experience/interests, as a PhD student, you will gain hands-on experience in

• Synthetic chemistry and analytical techniques (HPLC, LC–MS, NMR)
• Designing and synthesising compounds for bacterial or fungal new targets or developing theragnostic agents
• Radiation safety, regulation and handling radioisotopes
• Radiochemistry (radio labelling of compounds, purity, stability andin vitrocharacterisation of radio labelled compounds using radio iTLC and radio-HPLC)
• Microbiological assays (microbial cell growth and maintenance,in vitroevaluation of radio labelled compounds in different microbial pathogens) & tissue culture-basedex vivoevaluation
• Ethical and regulatory compliance for animal study (Home Office licensing in the UK)
• Preclinical animal studies (in vivostudies in healthy and infection model), Imaging data acquisition and analysis (Positron Emission Tomography)

Complementary training includes research ethics, scientific communication, project management, and collaboration across clinical and scientific disciplines—equipping you to contribute to innovative diagnostics and targeted therapies in the fight against infectious diseases and AMR.

References:

• Akter A, Cooper MS, Darwesh AMF, Hider RC, Blower PJ, Price NM, Lyons O, Schelenz S, Mehra V, Abbate V.Radiotracers for in situ infection imaging:
  Experimental considerations for in vitro microbial uptake of gallium-68-labeled siderophores.Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis. 2024 Dec;110(4):116522. doi: 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.
• Young JD, Abbate V, Imberti C, Meszaros LK, Ma MT, Terry SYA, Hider RC, Mullen GE, Blower PJ.68
  
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